The process to confirm the participation of 150 Data Champions continued into April 2026. The associated work to support the readiness of system vendors to facilitate the service evaluation data collection process was also a key CCS workstream this month.
The Department of Health have launched a national survey for members of the public. Patients completing the survey are asked about the care and treatment they received under the CCCS. The questions have been informed by research carried out by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). The survey aims to provide information on how the service is being used and to identify ways it can be improved to meet the needs of the public. To highlight the survey to members of the public a poster with a survey QR code link is available to download and print from the CCS Hub on the IPU website.
The HSE commenced the process of onboarding pharmacies to this service in April 2026. The first phase of invitations to participate were issued to pharmacies in Galway and Limerick. There has been strong engagement from the 200 pharmacies invited. The first set of pharmacies are now set up to order condoms and lubricants from healthpromotion.ie to utilise in private consultations such as emergency contraception to support patients in engaging with safe sexual health practices. Phase two of the rollout will continue in May 2026 with a further 200 pharmacies set to be contacted directly by the HSE and invited to participate in the service.
As a reminder, an article outlining the service and the process by which pharmacies can participate was published in the March edition of the IPU Review. This was followed up in March with the issuing of Circular NCO-06-2026. Copies of these materials and further information on the initiative, including a HSE NCDS Operational webinar, are available on the NCDS Hub on the IPU website.
The IPU Community Pharmacy Committee (CPC) together with HSE Health and Wellbeing (HSE H&W) have agreed the following public health campaigns to be supported across the community pharmacy network as part of the commitments outlined in the CPA25:
The Pregnancy and Alcohol campaign commenced on 13 April 2026. Pharmacies should continue to display the poster and leaflets circulated via the IPU Review in April until the campaign end date of 29 May 2026. Further leaflets and posters are available to order via healthpromotion.ie. The campaign briefing webinar is available to watch back on the IPU National Public Health Campaigns webpage. The training resource for this campaign is the IPU review article ‘Supporting women to have an alcohol-free pregnancy‘. It is also available on the webpage and all members of the pharmacy team should be familiar with its content.
To support evaluation of the campaign and ongoing delivery in practice, pharmacies will be required to complete a brief end-of-campaign survey. Further detail will be communicated in May. Pharmacies are also encouraged to send any information/pictures highlighting the delivery of this health promotion activity in their pharmacy to the IPU Professional Service team at pharmacists@ipu.ie.
Work is now underway to develop the resources pharmacies will require to support Men’s Health week which runs from 15 June until 21 June 2026.
The pharmacy pneumococcal vaccination service (providing PPV 23 vaccination to healthy over-65-year-olds who are eligible) will be operational from 1 May 2026. At the time of going to print publication of a Circular entitled Public Pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV23) in Community Pharmacy was imminent. Final testing of the Pharmavax system changes is also being completed by a team of IT and community pharmacy users. Legislative changes to enable funding are also in process.
An article in this month’s IPU Review provides further detail on this service. Resources to support delivery in practice are available on the Pneumococcal Vaccination Hub on the IPU website.
At the time of going to print a meeting was being scheduled to further discuss the service specification, to address operational questions and to scope out the plan for public awareness of the service. Stericycle, who currently hold the HSE contract for clinical waste disposal, will manage the service. Whilst a large number of pharmacies already engage with Stericycle for healthcare waste management services there are over 400 pharmacies who do not currently have a Stericycle account. It is likely that Stericycle will contact those pharmacies through the month of May but further detail will be communicated in advance of any onboarding process. Updates will be shared via the IPU newsletter and WhatsApp channel as and when available.
The Pharmacy Training Grant portal for 2026 claims (training undertaken in 2025) went live on 26 March. It is available for pharmacy contractors to access via their PCRS Pharmacy Suite. The portal removes the previous process that was in place and administered by the local HSE Primary Care Pharmacist. You are no longer required to send claims for the training grant to the HSE Pharmacist in your area. Claims for courses undertaken in 2025 can only be submitted via the online portal.
To support with submission of claims via this new route, the IPU has developed a Pharmacy Training Grant Claiming Guide and associated Training Grant Information Checklist 2026. Both are available on the IPU website.
To begin preparations for the implementation of the Continuation of Contraception Service the Community Pharmacy Expansion Implementation Oversight Group met on 16 April 2026. The process for making relevant amendments to primary legislation to support the delivery of this service by pharmacists under the Free Contraception Scheme has now commenced. This will be progressed over the coming months.
Engagement is ongoing with the HSE National Screening Service to implement the commitment in the CPA25 for community pharmacies to become a trusted and accessible point for awareness, registration, and support with the BowelScreen programme. As outlined in CPA25 a stepwise approach will be taken starting with the training and health promotion activity. Work is underway to agree the training approach and resources to support health promotion activity, which will take place through 2026.
Under the CPA25, changes to the phased dispensing model were agreed. These were paused with agreement in January and were to be implemented in April. After a period of engagement, a new agreement was made between the IPU’s Pharmacy Contractors’ Committee (PCC) and State stakeholders. The negotiated proposal as agreed by the PCC has been ratified by the Executive Committee.
The new agreement replaces the previous phased dispensing model, in place prior to CPA 2025, with a GMS Medicines Optimisation Service, with an increased focus on medicines optimisation support for patients. Under this model, pharmacists will determine the most appropriate optimisation supports, where clinically indicated, for certain cohorts of medical card patients.
The new arrangements will be implemented from 1 June. Until then, current phased dispensing arrangements remain in place.
A dedicated hub on the IPU website contains a range of resources to support with understanding and implementing the service. The addendum to CPA25 to replace section 3.4.3, a recorded IPU Members Information webinar, FAQs and clinical support tools are all available on this Medicines Optimisation Support Service hub.
Section 4.3 of CPA25 includes commitments to modernise prescription management and reduce unnecessary administrative burden, while maintaining regulatory safeguards.
Legislative amendments have been introduced to enable pharmacies to move to electronic record keeping. This is a very positive step forward to reduce administrative burden for pharmacists and their teams.
The following statutory instruments to enable electronic record-keeping were signed into law by the Minister for Health in April 2026 and are effective from 30 June 2026:
The PSI has revised their PSI Guidelines on Record Keeping in a Retail Pharmacy Business in light of these changes. A public consultation on the draft revised guidelines is open until 5.00pm on Tuesday, 19 May.
Clare Fitzell
Secretary General, IPU
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