The NHS DMS is an essential service for community pharmacy contractors. As an essential service, it must be provided by all community pharmacy contractors.
The service has been established to:
- make sure there's better communication of changes to a patient’s medication when they leave hospital
- reduce incidences of avoidable harm caused by medicines
By referring patients to community pharmacy on discharge with information about medication changes made in hospital, community pharmacy can support patients to:
- improve outcomes
- prevent harm
- reduce readmissions
Claiming for NHS DMS
You’ll receive a fee of £35 for each completed NHS DMS. The payment must be claimed on the Manage your service (MYS) portal no later than the fifth day of the month following that in which the NHS DMS was completed.
From 1 July 2024, if you fail to submit by the deadline, later submissions will be accepted. This is only if made within 3 months of the date by which the claim should have been submitted. Later claims will not be paid.
If you’re unable to complete the NHS DMS in full, you're able to claim the following fees for the stages of the NHS DMS that have been completed:
- Stage 1 - £12
- Stage 2 - £11
- Stage 3 - £12
If you’ve not completed all stages of the NHS DMS you intend to complete, you should not yet make a claim.
If you claim for all stages provided but not a completed DMS referral, you must provide a reason to confirm why the NHS DMS service was not provided in full to the patient.
Information on part-completion claims can be found in Part VIA of the Drug Tariff.