Advance notice: Updated Pharmacy First clinical pathways and PGDs

In the autumn of last year, NHS England started a clinical review of the Pharmacy First clinical pathways and patient group directions (PGD), informed by feedback received from pharmacy teams and other stakeholders, including Community Pharmacy England.

Three community pharmacists nominated by Community Pharmacy England participated in the working group which advised NHS England on the review and changes to both the clinical pathways and the PGDs have been agreed.

The changes to the PGDs are mostly minor, addressing minor errors in the current PGDs and amending wording to provide greater clarity for pharmacists providing the service.

The changes to the clinical pathways are more substantive and they include movement of some of the Gateway points within the pathways and the addition of further Gateway points.

We argued for these changes to better align payments for consultations with the work that pharmacists are undertaking when consulting with patients with one of the seven clinical pathway conditions. Once implemented, the changes to the pathways should increase the number of patients for whom a consultation fee can be claimed.

Draft versions of the revised clinical pathways and PGDs have now been published on the NHSBSA website.

Download the DRAFT versions of the clinical pathways and PGDs

These draft documents have been published to provide advance notice of the changes to the service for pharmacy owners and their teams, and additionally to support IT system suppliers in developing the necessary changes to their systems.

The commencement date for use of the revised patient pathways and PGDs will be announced by NHS England in due course.

Prior to the commencement date, the final versions of the patient pathways and PGDs will be published on the NHS England website. From the commencement date, the updated documentation on the NHS England website must be used by all pharmacy owners providing the service, not the draft documents which have now been published.

For now, the service has not changed, and pharmacy owners and their teams must continue to provide the service in line with the current documentation published on the NHS England website.