Quality Payment Review June 2018 - Are You Ready To Claim For Healthy Living Pharmacy?

The next review point for claiming quality payments is Friday 29th June.

95% of the population can get to a pharmacy within 20 minutes and 70% of those visiting a pharmacy will not access other healthcare services. Community pharmacies are therefore ideally positioned to provide advice to people who may not access any other reliable source of health information.

In October 2016 the government announced a points-based service scheme which all pharmacies can sign up to. In short, the more approved services provided by the pharmacy, the more money the pharmacy can claim.
The aim of becoming a Healthy Living Pharmacy (HLP) framework is to identify health inequalities, improve the health and wellbeing of the local population and optimise signposting opportunities to services in the local area.
The HLP framework is underpinned by three enablers:

Part of the criteria to receive Quality Payments requires the pharmacy to achieve Healthy Living Pharmacy Level 1 status. The first step in achieving this status to train a Health Leader and one or more Health Champions.

HEALTH CHAMPION

Members of the pharmacy team are crucial to the success of a Healthy Living Pharmacy. To become a HLP you need to identify at least one Health Champion who will undergo a formal training course to help them to identify local areas for health improvement and develop ways to tackle them. Health Champions understand the role of pharmacy and also engage other team members in helping to improve the health of their communities.

HEALTH LEADER

The process of becoming a HLP needs to be carefully co-ordinated and planned, so it is also necessary that a 'Health Leader' (as we like to call them) has been identified and trained for the task. This may be the pharmacist or pharmacy manager but could equally be a pharmacy technician or other senior person in the team. The Health Leader will ensure all the necessary steps to becoming a HLP are taken and be able to get the rest of the team on board.

HLP TRAINING

Buttercups currently provide two courses that will help you attain this status:

1. The Level 2 RSPH Award in Understanding Health Improvement is usually undertaken by a member of pharmacy support staff and will equip them to become a Health Champion. The learner must be a full time equivalent, or where this is not possible, there must be two members of staff trained as Health Champions, whose hours make up a full time equivalent.

2. We can also offer the online Leadership for Healthy Living Pharmacies training, which is usually undertaken by a pharmacist or pharmacy technician, however there is no requirement for them to be working full time.

Further information about these courses can be accessed via the above links, and any questions can be directed to training@buttercups.co.uk

For more information, visit the PSNC website.

https://www.healthylivingpharmacies.org/

• workforce development – a skilled team to pro-actively support and promote behaviour change, improving health and wellbeing
• premises that are fit for purpose
• engagement with the local community, other health professionals (especially GPs), social care and public health professionals and local authorities.