The Pharmacist publishes comprehensive coverage of community pharmacy contract

The Pharmacist has pulled together a comprehensive package of coverage on this year’s community pharmacy contract, including creating a new ‘in depth’ section for the website.

Reporter Emily Warner took the lead when Department of Health Social Care and Community Pharmacy England (CPE) issued embargoed press releases and a briefing paper on Thursday 28 June, drafting three stories to go out when the embargo lifted the next day.

These were on the £340 million contract funding uplift, the addition of independent prescribing to the Pharmacy First scheme and new rules allowing pharmacies to close for staff training.

The next day when more of the contract details emerged Emily produced two more stories and began working on a detailed explainer on what the contract means for the sector, published on Monday 1 June.

An ‘in depth’ tab was added to the The Pharmacist website, with a section on the contract with a new story keyword so all the coverage can be found in one place.

Over the next few weeks Emily has continued to file updates and reaction to the contract as it has developed, while editor Victoria Vaughan wrote a column on the contract as well.

The latest podcast, released this week, features CPE’s chief executive, Janet Morrison, for an exclusive look behind the scenes of the pharmacy contract negotiations.

The stories have had a lot of interest from readers, with some being the top stories of the week.

The team has also put out a number of breaking emails for key stories, including the contract announcement and Emily’s exclusive that CPE had pushed for new service caps to avoid ‘over commissioning’.

Along with this comprehensive package of stories, even more is expected over the coming days with the debate continuing at our new flagship conference Community Pharmacy and General Practice.