Useful Links and Information
This page includes general resources for community pharmacies that we think you might find useful. If you have any suggestions, please let us know!
Patient consent and NHS EPS Nominations email from the NHS Midlands Pharmacy Team
The Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) enables prescriptions to be sent electronically from a prescriber to the pharmacy and then on to the NHSBSA for payment. More information on the link below:
Additional Documents – NHS West Midlands:
Pharmacy Email March 2024
Inaproppriate EPS Nominations_13-03-24
PSNC-Briefing-034.16-EPS-nomination-–-core-principles-updated-2020
Nomination – What you need to know
Your Prescription Your choice
LPC Guidance:
More information on CPE here.
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/promotional-materials-for-community-pharmacy-services/
NHS Promotional Materials for Community Pharmacies (link)
National Health Campaigns Resource Centre (link – requires registration)
Prescription savings campaign – comms toolkit (PowerPoint download)
Part XIVC of the Drug Tariff sets out the temporary safeguarding payment arrangements put in place where a pharmacy contractor’s dispensing business is adversely affected if prescribers systematically increase prescription duration on all or a significant percentage of their prescription items, due to direct or indirect instigation by the CCG. This could lead to dispensing contractors facing increased supplier bills in certain months (as more medicines are dispensed per prescription than usual) and then decreased prescription item volume in subsequent months.
Message from the ICB dated March 2025:
Reference: Access to translation services
DA Languages Ltd (latterly known as DALS) are a provider of interpreting services for all our contractors (including pharmacy contractors). The ICB commissions and pays for this service; it is managed by the Office of West Midlands on our behalf.
The provider website can be found here https://dals.co.uk.
The provider offers a range of services to support services to enable patient : Health Care Professional consultations to go smoothly.
The services that DAL offer are:
- Telephone Interpreting
- Video remote interpreting (spoken and non-spoken)
- Face to Face interpreting (spoken and non-spoken)
- Translation of documents (by prior approval by the ICB)
Given the nature of patient interactions with community pharmacists, it is likely that telephone or video interpreting will be most convenient.
We recommend that contractors get in touch with DAL via clientaccounts@dals.co.uk to set up an account that will then enable them to book services. DAL team will be able to explain the process for making bookings, languages availability, technical requirements, cancellation charges etc.
In summary, telephone interpreting is available Monday – Friday 8am – 6pm, as well as out of hours and on Bank holidays. It is billed on a ‘per minute’ basis, with a minimum charge of 15 minutes.
Video interpreting is available Monday – Friday 8am – 6pm, as well as out of hours and on Bank holidays. It is billed on a ‘per minute’ basis, with a minimum charge of 15 minutes for spoken and 2 hours for non-spoken.
Face to face services are available Monday – Friday 8am – 6pm, as well as out of hours and on Bank holidays (this attracts an additional charge).
It is of note that cancellation charges apply for bookings cancelled within 24 hours of a booking being made for telephone and online bookings and 7 days for non-spoken bookings.
If you have any questions, please let us know via hwicb.delegatedcommissioning@nhs.net and we will do our best to assist.
We also welcome feedback on experience of using the services – this is invaluable for learning and supports future procurements.
