About Us

Community Pharmacy Hertfordshire (CPH) represents and supports all pharmacy contractors in Hertfordshire by negotiating for local enhanced services such as the supply of emergency hormonal contraception, needle exchange, supervised methadone consumption, chlamydia screening and smoking cessation services. CPH also supports the implementation of the pharmacy contractual framework by liaising with contractors and the Area Team.

CPH is constituted according to the model constitution set out by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) and operates within a corporate governance framework. Funding for CPH is derived from a levy paid by all pharmacy contractors in Hertfordshire. The CPH Constitution was revised in January 2023 and will take effect from April 2023 due to the changes in the local NHS infrastructure.

Strategic Plan and Priority Workstreams

In March 2021 CPH agreed a three-year strategic plan to run until March 2024 that included an overarching vision, mission and aims. The priorities for achievement would refresh every financial year during the three-year period and have been updated as outlined below.

Vision

Community pharmacies are an integrated and equal partner in the health and care landscape for the benefit of patients.

Mission

Represent and support community pharmacies to work locally as one unified and integrated part of the health and care community that supports the best possible outcomes for patients.

Aims and Core Responsibilities (for CPH Office to deliver these aims)     

To represent community pharmacy in Hertfordshire to all stakeholders.

1. Engaging with stakeholders such as Local Representative Committees, Pharmaceutical companies, other LPCs and PSNC on a regular basis.
2. Attending regular meetings and engage with commissioning and provider stakeholders within the local health and care environment. This includes medicines management meetings and locality meetings. The current focus is on Clinical Commissioning Groups, Public Health Hertfordshire, NHS England and NHS Improvement and the transition to the Integrated Care System.
3. Maximising delivery and integration of community pharmacy with other providers in discussions with provider and commissioner colleagues.

To provide leadership and development of community pharmacy to meet future challenges.

1. Delivering training/education/events that are not already provided or signposting existing events to support community pharmacy contractors and their teams to deliver on existing and new services.
2. Identifying gaps in community pharmacy delivery and identifying support/guidance to aid delivery.
3. Reminding community pharmacy contractors of best practice in areas identified as challenges.

To enable community pharmacies to be able to deliver existing and new commissioned/contracted services, nationally and locally, successfully.

1. Supporting community pharmacy contractors and their teams to deliver their community pharmacy contractual framework and any local services sharing best practice and data on delivery, signposting to supportive information and feeding back on impractical aspects of contracts/services to commissioners/other providers to enact change.
2. Responding and resolving queries and contacts from community pharmacy contractors and their teams on a daily basis.
3. Keeping community pharmacy contractors and their teams updated and briefed on changes to their Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework through the website, regular news communications and social media.

 The above aims are supported by focusing on the following priority workstreams in 2024/25 as outlined below:

 Priority Workstreams

Pharmacy First

Objective: To deliver integrated local pathways for the benefit of patients in Hertfordshire and the system with the following services:

1. Pharmacy First (PF)
2. Hypertension Case-Finding (HCF)
3. Contraception (PCS)

Community Pharmacy Communication and Engagement

Objective: To implement a succession planning process for future community pharmacy leaders and to influence the integration of resourced community pharmacy leads as part of the ICB whilst developing all community pharmacy contractors to engage with CPH and peers sharing best practice and supporting those that are challenged with delivering pharmacy services.

Community Pharmacy Workforce

Objective: That community pharmacy is included as part of HWE ICB primary care education and training delivery and supported to host educational placements.

Prescribing and Medicines Optimisation Services

Objective: To deliver integrated local pathways that increases provider collaboration and referrals for local prescribing services that community pharmacy engages with thereby improving patient quality through medicines optimisation.

Public Health

Objective: To enable delivery of the national advanced service for the Smoking Cessation Service by community pharmacies and to extend vaccination services to be commissioned locally from community pharmacies for shingles, childhood immunisations and pertussis in Hertfordshire for the benefit of patients.