Inpax Contract (FOI)

​Request  

A

Which Government of Jersey department is responsible for the Inpax Prescribing Advisory Service​ contract ?

B

What is the annual cost of this contract? 

C

Is there a commission element to the contract with Inpax? 

D

Do Inpax have oversight of hospital prescribing, private consultants and the cannabis industry? 

E.

What is the scope of the Inpax contract?

Response

A 

Customer and Local Services hold the contract for the Prescribing Advisory Service.

B

The exact value of the contract is deemed commercially sensitive and would ordinarily be exempt under Article 33(b) (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. However, the fees paid have previously been published on register presented to the States Assembly by the Chief Minister and therefore a precedent exists to publish similar information, using the banding categories applied in the Chief Ministers report.  The value of the prescribing advisory service falls within the band £100,000 to £125,000.

C

The Prescribing Advisory Service is a commissioned service awarded following a tender exercise.  Fees paid are in respect of delivery of the service.

D

The Prescribing Advisory Service primarily provides a service to the Minister for Social Security in respect of Health Insurance Fund benefits and contracts.  As such the Prescribing Advisory Service does not provide oversight of Hospital prescribing, private consultants or the use of Medical Cannabis.

E

The scope of the Inpax contract is described in the following documents which were used to procure the current services via competitive tender. 

Description of Requirements 

The States of Jersey require an expert advisor service to offer support in a number of areas regarding community prescribing.  The objectives of the service are to

• Promote the safe, efficient and cost effective use of prescription medicines in the community in Jersey
• To contribute to the governance and regulation of general practitioners, non-medical prescribers, pharmacists and dental practitioners in Jersey
• To optimise the use of medicines in Jersey, working across sectors and healthcare boundaries
• To support the education of prescribers in Jersey
• To offer practice based pharmacy support
• To contribute to the strategic development of primary care currently underway in Jersey

Activities required in the delivery of this service include (but are not limited to)

• Offer advice to the Social Security Department and other States departments using expert clinical knowledge, research and utilising emerging information from environmental scanning and professional networks, to assist the States in optimising the use of medicines in the community
• To improve prescribing practice in the community, regularly meeting with prescribers to offer challenge, support and negotiate change.  
• To manage the use of ScriptSwitch, maintaining up-to-date and appropriate recommendations and encouraging prescriber engagement.
• To answer enquiries from prescribers, media and public on medicines use and liaise with other practitioners to resolve complex queries or cases
• Assist with the investigation and resolution of patient complaints regarding prescribing in the community
• To design and deliver educational events for primary care practitioners
• Support to the Pharmaceutical Benefit Advisory Committee (PBAC), including preparation of papers and research regarding applications to add or remove items from the prescribed list, offering an assessment of cost effectiveness and clinical efficacy 
• Undertake data analysis and performance monitoring, offering scheduled and ad hoc reports of prescribing in the community (using the epact system and other data sets)
• To undertake analysis and review of prescribing and dispensing in the community with reference to legal frameworks (eg See Health Insurance (Jersey) Law 1967), policy and protocols (eg shared care, transfer of care, primary care prescribing policy)
• Assist with FoI requests and to public, stakeholder or political queries 
• Environmental scanning for new information and developments which may impact on prescribing practice, patient care, service design and expenditure
• Liaison across primary and secondary care in the development of services, shared care and pathways
• Identify and promote best practice. 
• Support messaging regarding patient safety and product recall
• Implement changes to improve patient outcomes and cost-efficiency in prescribing
• Attend and participate in meetings and forums as necessary
• To be sought as an opinion leader regarding community based pharmaceutical care, to offer leadership and influence  
• To contribute to service innovation and business case development 
• In 2018, implement and manage a pilot prescribing support scheme

Contacts, scope and line of reporting

As part of the service, liaison is required with

• The Responsible Officers (primary and secondary care), the Medical Officer of Health, the Chief Pharmacist
• Community pharmacists and pharmacy contractors
• GPs, dentists and non-medical prescribers, community prescribers
• HSSD clinical leads and commissioners
• Patients and their representatives
• States of Jersey officers, policy and operational leads
• National and international pharmacy groups and bodies
• Academic experts and specialists

The Service is managed by the Social Security Department of the States of Jersey in support of the Social Security Ministers’ responsibilities to oversee Pharmaceutical Benefit under the Health Insurance (Jersey) Law 1967. This law may be viewed on the link below:

Health Insurance (Jersey) Law 1967 (jerseylaw.je)​

Governance of primary care is delivered by the Health and Social Services Department (HSSD) but in parts enabled by the Health Insurance Law, as such the service provider will also work closely with the HSSD Primary Care Governance Team.  The service provider will act with a fair degree of autonomy within this scope. 

The service provider will work primarily with the Policy Principal reporting through to the Strategy and Policy Director of the Social Security department. 

While the service provider is required to support the States in their programme of primary care reform, service development and management of community prescribing – they are required to maintain an independent advisor role ensuring the States can access expertise free from vested interest. 

Article applied:

Article 33 - Commercial interests

​Information is qualified exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes a trade secret; or

(b) its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information).

Public Interest Test

Article 33 (b) is a prejudice-based exemption. That means that in order to engage this exemption there must be a likelihood that disclosure would cause prejudice to the interest that the exemption protects. In addition, this is a qualified exemption and consideration must be given to the public interest in maintaining the exemption.

The Scheduled Public Authority (SPA) considers that providing information could prejudice the commercial interests of the Government of Jersey and / or third parties. There may be public interest in the commercial information, however it was considered that this is outweighed by the potential for commercial and or financial damage.​