Doctors’ group questions Pharmacy First funding

As under the new service pharmacists will be paid £1,000 a month plus £15 per consultation, DAUK spokesperson Dr Steve Taylor said this equated to £48 per consultation – more than double the £23 per consultation that GPs currently receive.

GPs call for review as pharmacists paid ‘more than double’ per consultation | Pulse Magazine

“There are fundamental differences between how pharmacies and GPs are paid for services which makes such comparisons worthless. GP funding is largely based on capitation payments whilst community pharmacy owners only get paid when patients actively use their services. This means a lot of the overheads of running a pharmacy are not directly funded, unlike the GP model.

We have worked closely with GPC England from the time when we made our initial bid for a national Pharmacy First service in 2022. They expressed strong support for the direction of travel, recognising that the wider primary care team has to be part of the solution to GP access challenges.

With the huge pressures that the NHS is under, healthcare professionals should be supporting one another to work towards providing the best care for our patients. It is just not on to use news of a new service that would help take pressure off GPs as a way to diminish the work of pharmacies. They should be directing their frustration about funding towards the Government, not fellow healthcare professionals.”