Background

In 2019, the Community Pharmacy Consultation Service (CPCS) was introduced, supporting Referrals into Community Pharmacy for a minor illness consultation and/or an emergency supply of medicines. Initially the service focused on channel shifting Patients from the 111 services (telephony and 111 online), but it has since been expanded to include Referrals from General Practices. Currently these Referrals are being made via a myriad of methods, Pharmrefer which sends an email message if the pharmacy is not using Pharmoutcomes and NHS Mail where the GP may email the pharmacy.

There is the need to make it easier and safer for Patients to access the care they need and for services to have the information they need to support this, and GP Practices need an efficient and effective way to be able to refer Patients into Community Pharmacy services. Community Pharmacy services need to receive Referrals from GP Practices and other sectors in a consistent way into their pharmacy system workflow where they are managed and responded to accordingly which includes the ability to forward the Referral when a service is not available.

The main aim for the Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS) is to digitise the Patient’s journey above, and to offer it from any GP Practice to any pharmacy for CPCS (regardless of the software they use). With the proposal to launch a Common Conditions Service that will channel shift Patients from General Practice into Community Pharmacy Service for seven common conditions, BaRS has been deemed an essential requirement for the digital infrastructure required to launch this service.

Currently these Referrals are being made via a myriad of methods, including:

• For CPCS (Community Pharmacist Consultation Service) use PharmRefer to send a Referral via ITK or NHS mail

• For BPC (Blood Pressure Check Service) to signpost the Patient with no electronic Referral

• For CMS (Contraception Management Service) to signpost the Patient with no electronic Referral

There is the need to make it easier and safer for Patients to access the care they need and for services to have the information they need to support this, and GP Practices need an efficient and effective way to refer Patients into Community Pharmacy services. Community Pharmacy services need to receive Referrals from GP Practices and other sectors in a consistent way, into their pharmacy system workflow where they are managed and responded to accordingly. The main aim for the Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS) is to digitise the Patient’s journey above, and to offer it from any GP Practice to any pharmacy, regardless of the software they use for CPCS, BPC, CMS and the CCS (Common Conditions Service)

With the proposal to launch a Common Conditions Service that will channel shift Patients from General Practice into Community Pharmacy Service for seven common conditions, BaRS has been deemed an essential requirement for the digital infrastructure required to launch this service.

Outline Plan

All Foundation Suppliers must be compliant against this specification by the Effective Date. Prior to go live Suppliers must have completed the Solution Assurance by NHSE.

November 2023 – to support the launch of a new Common Conditions Service (Delivery Plan commitment)

Autumn/Winter 23/24 – to support further scale of the Blood Pressure Checks service and Pharmacy Contraception Service (Delivery Plan commitment)

Suppliers to provide feedback for BaRS Core by the 30th June.

Suppliers to provide feedback for BaRS Applications by the 10th July, once the link is updated with the GP to Pharmacy Application on the 3rd July.

Summary of Change

Updates to the Interoperability Standard:

Referral Management - GP

Full Specification

• Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS) v1.0.0

• Referral Management - GP v2.0.0

Assurance Approach

Follow this link to find information about the assurance approach for the BaRS Standard.