NHS publishes data on Pharmacy First
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) has released figures for the first three months of the NHS Pharmacy First Service (covering the period of 31st January to 30th April 2024). Highlights include:
- Over 9,976 community pharmacies delivered and claimed over 423,000 Pharmacy First clinical pathway consultations; and
- 78% of consultations resulted in a medicine being supplied to patients.
According to the NHSBSA’s figures, the average number of consultations per pharmacy reached 17 in April.
Our CEO Janet Morrison said:
“It’s encouraging to see how many patients are already being helped by Pharmacy First, but the NHS quarterly report highlights that there is still more work to be done to drive people to the service.
Community pharmacies have done an amazing job providing Pharmacy First, despite the very tight implementation timeline and early battles with IT issues. Pharmacy owners have overcome those challenges, but their ability to pass the monthly threshold levels for clinical pathways consultations remains a major ongoing concern. We continue to push DHSC and NHS England to provide more support to ensure referrals are made to the service and undertake significantly more advertising to the public.
Discussions with the Department and NHS England are ongoing but, with the August threshold increase now looming, we have escalated our concerns and requested that the Minister intervenes as a matter of urgency. The monthly payments are critical for pharmacy businesses, and it is completely unreasonable to penalise them financially for the NHS’ failure to drive public and general practice behaviour changes.”
Further information
Janet has also recently provided a video update on Pharmacy First, addressing some of the concerns that pharmacy owners have, particularly around the thresholds for monthly payments.
