The aim of the Pharmacy Access Scheme (PhAS) is to ensure that a baseline level of patient access to NHS community pharmaceutical services in England is protected. Qualifying pharmacies will receive an extra payment.
The PhAS has been designed to capture the pharmacies that are most important for patient access, those pharmacies where patient and public access would be affected should they close.
It's funded to no more than £20 million from the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF).
Eligibility
Pharmacies do not need to apply to the scheme to be eligible.
Eligibility is calculated for all contractors in England and has been reviewed against all pharmacies on the pharmaceutical list of 31 March 2021.
From 1 January, eligibility for the 2022 PhAS will be based on meeting all the following criteria:
- the pharmacy is on the pharmaceutical list of 31 March 2021
- the pharmacy is more than one mile from the next nearest pharmacy, based on pharmacy to pharmacy distance calculations using Ordnance Survey
- where a pharmacy is in a deprived area (that is, the premises are located in the area assigned to IMD decile 1 to 2), distance to the next nearest pharmacy is reduced to more than 0.8 miles
- the pharmacy had a dispensing volume between 1,200 and 104,789 in 2019 to 2020. For pharmacies that opened after March 2019, a mixture of scaling and data from following months was utilised to get a full 12 months
- the pharmacy premises are accessible to the public, not in an area with restricted access (for example, beyond airport security)
The following pharmacies will be excluded from the scheme:
- Distance selling pharmacies.
- Local Pharmaceutical Services (LPS) pharmacies1.
- Pharmacies in areas with dense provision of pharmacies.
- Pharmacies, which received less than 1,200 or more than 104,789 Single Activity Fees (SAFs) in 2019/20
Read more information on the 2022 PhAS in the Drug Tariff.
View a list of eligible pharmacy contractors.
Payment
Eligible PhAS pharmacy contractors are not required to make a claim and they'll receive a monthly payment with their reconciliation payment.
Payments can be found in Table 1 Part XIIA of the Drug Tariff.
Pharmacy contractors must meet the eligibility criteria in paragraph 6.1 and the requirement in paragraph 6.3.
Read more information on the payments in the Drug Tariff.
Review process
A review process is included in the scheme to allow for consideration of extenuating circumstances which may mean that access is not being protected in the way intended by the scheme.
The cases that will qualify for a review are:
- inaccuracies in pharmacy premises location
- physical feature anomalies - such as a semi-permanent roadblock meaning two pharmacies are then more than 1 mile from each other
Applications for review must be submitted between 4 January and 4 March 2022.
Reviews will be administered and completed by NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I). This is including the assessment of and decisions taken on all applications for review. All pharmacy contractors will be informed of the outcome of the review process by the end of May 2022.
Applications for review must contain evidence of how the contractor meets the eligibility criteria.
Submit a review application on the PhAs review portal.
Read more information on the review process in the Drug Tariff.