This page contains information for pharmacists about NHS England incentive schemes for children and young people with asthma.


New medicine service (NMS)

The New Medicine (NMS) service provides support for people with long-term conditions newly prescribed a medicine to help improve medicines adherence; it is initially focused on particular patient groups and conditions.

Starting a new medicine or a change in prescribed regime can lead to confusion and uncertainty in patients which can lead to non-adherence issues. For example, when patients step up in asthma management, this can be a particularly anxious time for the parents of children with asthma.

NMS is equally applicable to children and young people as it is to adults. It can be a valuable tool in identifying issues with non-adherence at an early stage in treatment.

For further information, visit the NHS England NMS webpage.

You can also follow advice from the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) on the new medicines service.

Pharmacy Quality Scheme

The aims of the Pharmacy Quality Payments Scheme (PQS) related to asthma are for community pharmacy to:

  • continue work from previous PQS in reducing morbidity and preventable deaths from asthma through targeted clinical surveillance and evidence-based interventions
  • contribute to optimising inhaler technique and outcomes in patients with asthma
  • promote safe and environmentally friendly disposal of all unwanted and used inhaler devices by engaging in discussions with all patients, their carers and/or representatives

For more information on PQS see NHS England or PSNC.

Discharge medicines service (DMS)

The NHS Discharge Medicines Service is a new essential service for community pharmacy contractors, commencing in February 2021. As an essential service, it must be provided by all community pharmacy contractors.

The service has been established to ensure better communication of changes to a patient’s medication when they leave hospital and to 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 and reduce readmissions.

To support community pharmacy, hospital, and primary care network (PCN) clinical teams with delivering the NHS Discharge Medicines Service, the following materials are available:

Discharge Medicines Service Toolkit: To ensure that a cross-sector approach is taken to implementation, and to support clinical teams across hospitals, PCNs and community pharmacy to provide the service, a cross-sector toolkit has been published. 

Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) Training Materials: It is advised that community pharmacies, NHS trusts and PCNs ensure that all staff making referrals, delivering or supporting delivery of the service, complete the CPPE NHS Discharge Medicines Service training.

For more information NHS England » NHS Discharge Medicines Service