NHS England will ‘shortly’ announce the process for GP practices to claim reimbursement for their Covid-19 PPE, it has said.
Practices must ensure they are registered with the Government’s central PPE portal so that they can continue to access PPE for free after the ‘cut-off date’, it added.
Further details on the process and dates ‘will be communicated shortly’, according to NHS England’s latest primary care bulletin.
The email bulletin said: ‘The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is working with us to develop a process to reimburse primary care contractors (general practice, dental, optometry and community pharmacy) for the additional PPE they have purchased to meet the Covid-19 infection control requirements from 27 February 2020.
‘Information on the process and cut-off dates for this reimbursement exercise will be announced shortly and providers must register on the DHSC PPE portal to ensure they can continue accessing their Covid-19 infection control PPE free of charge.’
It added: ‘Any PPE obtained from a source other than the PPE portal after the cut-off date(s) will not be reimbursed.’
Processes and cut-off dates ‘may differ’ between contracting groups but NHS England will be working with representative bodies ‘in the coming weeks’ to ensure processes are ‘a good fit’ for each group, it said.
NHS England added that reimbursable PPE is classed as that which providers are ‘required’ to use ‘over and above business-as-usual use’ and ‘due to Covid-19 infection control guidance, rather than what would have been used pre-pandemic’.
In August, NHS England published details of its long-awaited GP Covid Support Fund for ‘additional’ costs stemming from activities such as delivering care home services, opening over bank holidays and providing cover for staff off sick or shielding.
GPs were given six weeks to make claims for the reimbursements, which would cover expenses up to 31 July, as well as specific bank holidays and care homes work until the DES launched on 1 October.
However, NHS England said at the time that further details on how practices can claim reimbursement for PPE would be communicated ‘soon’.
Pulse previously revealed that an out-of-hours provider has spent around £100,000 on PPE while awaiting the reimbursement promised by NHS England.
