Get involved with IT

Events with a digital or technology focus are listed below. The Community Pharmacy IT Group (CP ITG) meets each quarter, and its papers and updates are available on the CP ITG webpage.

Upcoming and recent events

• March 24th-25th, 2026: Rewired, Birmingham (face-to-face)
• May 8th-9th, 2026: Clinical Pharmacy Congress, London
• June 3rd, 2026: Community Pharmacy IT Group: Main meeting (virtual)
• September 23rd, 2026: Community Pharmacy IT Group: Main meeting (virtual)
• October 29th-30th, 2026: Healthcare Efficiency Through Technology (HETT) / UK Health Show (face-to-face)
• October 14th, 2026: Primary Care Conference, (face-to-face)
• October 11th-12th, 2026: Pharmacy Show including the technology hub (face-to-face)

(One-off and annual events appear in gold. You can also see Digitalhealth.net webinars/events, FutureNHS events, Kings Fund events, and NHS events.)

Previous events

(List retained but simplified for clarity while keeping dates unchanged)

• May 12th-13th, 2021: Clinical Pharmacy Congress, London
• September 21st, 2022 10am-12.50: Community Pharmacy IT Group, (virtual quarterly meeting)
• September 29th, 2022 12.00pm-1.00pm: Digital technologies and interoperability: enabling the future of integrated care (virtual)
• October 11th, 2022 9.30am-5.00pm: Digital health and care congress 2022 (face-to-face)
• October 11th, 2022 9.30am-10.15am: Community Pharmacy IT Group: Drug Tariff IT event (special meeting)
• October 12th, 2022 9.30am-10.15am: Community Pharmacy IT Group: dm+d medicine code changes event (special meeting)
• October 12th, 2022 10.30am-11.15am: Community Pharmacy IT Group: Vaccines, National Booking Service and appointments (special meeting)
• October 16th-17th, 2022 9.30am-5.00pm: Pharmacy Show, including the technology hub (face-to-face)
• October 27th, 2022 11am-11.45am: Community Pharmacy IT Group: Booking and Referral Standards (BaRS) (special meeting)
• November 7th, 2022 noon-12.55pm: Community Pharmacy IT Group: Introduction to the Pharmacy Contraception Service (special meeting)
• December 8th, 2022 9.30am-11am: Connecting with & benefitting from patient records webinar (for IT group and LPCs), hosted by CP ITG/NHSTD
• February 1st, 2023, Digital Primary Care Conference
• February 2nd,2023: Pharmacy introduction to the National Care Records Service
• February 7th, 2023: Introduction to the National Care Records Service 
• March 13th, 2023 10am-12.45: Community Pharmacy IT Group, (virtual quarterly meeting)
• March 14th-15th, 2023: Rewired, (face-to-face)
• June 7th, 2023 10am-12.40: Community Pharmacy IT Group, (virtual quarterly meeting)
• June 12th-16th, 2023, London Tech Week
• July 17th, 2023: Community Pharmacy IT Group: NHS Profile Manager updates including flu vaccine booking link field
• July 24th, 2023: Community Pharmacy IT Group: EPS trackability and NHS App workshop
• August 30th, 2023 12.20-13.30: ICB Digital Design Principles and Interoperability (webinar)
• September 20th, 2023 10am-12.45: Community Pharmacy IT Group: IT for the Primary Care Recovery Plan (virtual)
• October 11th-12th, 2023: Digital health and care congress 2023 (face-to-face)
• November 8th, 2023: Community Pharmacy IT Group: Main meeting (virtual)
• November 15th, 2023: Community Pharmacy IT Group: Sub-group meeting (virtual)
• December 12th, 2023: NHS Genomics Healthcare Summit, London (face-to-face)
• April 24th-25th, 2024: Digital Healthcare Show, (face-to-face)
• May 9th-10th, 2025: Clinical Pharmacy Congress, London
• June 4th, 2025: Community Pharmacy IT Group: Main meeting (virtual)
• September 17th, 2025: Community Pharmacy IT Group: Main meeting (virtual)
• October 1st, 2025: Primary Care Conference, (face-to-face)
• October 7th-8th, 2025: Healthcare Efficiency Through Technology (HETT) / UK Health Show (face-to-face)
• October 12th-13th, 2025: Pharmacy Show including the technology hub (face-to-face)

To request an event be added or to obtain a full list of past events, please contact da@cpe.org.uk.

Feedback and pilot participation

• If you are a pharmacy owner interested in testing new digital tools, please enter your details using our IT feedback form.
• Join the Community Pharmacy Digital email Group (CPDG). This email forum helps pharmacy teams and Local Pharmaceutical Committee members share ideas on digital topics and also informs CP ITG’s work.
• Use the IT feedback form to volunteer for future pilot opportunities.

Surveys

Keep an eye out for digital surveys shared with CPDG members and through the Community Pharmacy England newsletter.

Consultations

• NHS consultations (various deadlines)

You may find social media helpful for discussing community pharmacy IT topics. Community Pharmacy England has a guide to pharmacy social media use that can help you boost your use of it.

You and your team can learn more about digital topics by reading our information on Digital training and capabilities, exploring digital training options, and visiting our IT hub page.

NHS IT teams want to learn how community pharmacy owners and decision makers decide which services IT system to use or move towards when system decisions are being made.

The aim would be to help pharmacy owners choose pharmacy IT systems and services (e.g. a Pharmacy First IT solution) more easily, in a clearer and more consistent way.

At present there are four assured solutions, although there is possibility that over the longer term other suppliers would start to meet the relevant criteria to compete in the NHS pharmacy IT solution marketplace.

As part of this early work to understand what parameters would help more robust decision making, NHS teams want to hear directly from IT decision makers.

What types of differentiators would help you make a decision

NHS IT teams are interested with:

• pharmacy IT systems and services are available;
• what factors might influence your decision of a current/future solution
• how could suppliers offer to explain key features in plain English;
• how could pricing transparency be maintained so you can compare across systems
• how could you identify which solutions might reduce time and effort for pharmacy teams

Why your input matters

Pharmacy owners understand better than anyone how IT choices affect:

• day-to-day workload;
• patient safety and experience;
• staff time and training; and
• value for money.

Your responses will help ensure any future approach by suppliers and the NHS reflects real pharmacy needs and aligns with pharmacy owner needs such as system choice, interoperability, usability, and reduced burden.

Take part in the survey

• The survey is aimed at pharmacy owners or those responsible for IT purchasing decisions.
• It should take around five minutes to complete.

Please complete the survey here:
Community Pharmacy IT system selection (NHS IT survey)

If sharing the survey with others:

A factsheet can be used.

What happens next

NHS England and Community Pharmacy IT Group will use the survey findings to understand whether this idea is helpful, what pharmacy owners would want from it, and what concerns need to be addressed.

A summary of results will also be shared to the Community Pharmacy IT Group to help future considerations and will be made available to the community pharmacies within the CP ITG’s quarterly pharmacy IT bulletin.

NHS England and Community Pharmacy England are inviting pharmacy owners to take part in research testing the new NHS.net Connect Virtual Visits platform, which supports appointment booking and remote or face‑to‑face consultations.

The platform works with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Bookings.

To take part, team members will need:

• an active personal NHS.net Connect account
• access to the pharmacy’s shared NHS.net Connect inbox
• Microsoft Teams installed on a computer or tablet
• a device with a webcam

This research will help improve the platform and make it as easy to use as possible for busy pharmacy teams.

To register interest, complete the short web form. Your information will be shared with the project team for selection purposes.

If you would like more information first, email da@cpe.org.uk with ‘Virtual Visits pilot’ in the subject line.

Read more: NHS.net Connect and pharmacy remote consultations.