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Community Pharmacy England has rejected claims that it expects the current funding negotiations to drag on until as late as July after concerns were raised last week about ‘timeframes’ published in official CPE papers. 

In a statement yesterday (February 17), CPE said a reference in subcommittee papers to a timeframe of April-July to “conclude and implement” the sector’s contractual terms for 2024-25 and 2025-26 formed part of a draft work plan for the financial year beginning on April 1.

“We have not made any predictions about when the negotiations will conclude,” CPE commented as it pointed out that work to implement an agreed settlement “can go on for many months”.

“Any suggestions that we have indicated that the negotiations will go on until July are not correct,” said CPE, adding that it was “fully aware” of the need to “resolve negotiations as robustly and speedily as possible” to get the best outcome for pharmacies.

In a briefing this week, CPE said it has received an “Initial offer” from the Labour Government and devoted much of its recent February meeting to analysing this offer as well as deciding its “mandate” for “key issues, priorities and red lines”.

The briefing also revealed that the negotiator plans to raise the amount of money it draws from local pharmaceutical committees by 2 per cent “to sustain our current level of activity and ambition”.

“It is expected most LPCs will be able to absorb the increase without passing it onto pharmacy owners, as we have issued new guidance for them on managing reserves more flexibly,” the negotiator claimed.

CPE chief executive Janet Morrison said: “This is an extremely stressful and worrying time for all pharmacy owners. However, due to the Government’s strict confidentiality requirements, we are unable to say anything further about the negotiations, or to offer any running commentary, until an announcement is made.

“As with every negotiation, we are working to secure the best possible outcome for the sector and after detailed negotiations the full Committee will decide whether to accept or reject the final offer. We will announce the outcome – and our analysis of what it means – as soon as possible once negotiations conclude.”