PQS: Publication of clinical audit
NHS England has today published the Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) Antimicrobial stewardship – Pharmacy First consultations – Clinical Audit.
Completion of the audit, as well as sharing anonymised data with NHS England and incorporating any learnings from the audit into future practice by the end of 31st March 2026, is a quality criterion in the Patient safety domain of the 2025/26 Scheme.
Although the audit has been published today, pharmacy teams should not start the audit until 1st September 2025 at the earliest.
Publication of the audit paperwork ahead of the start date is to give pharmacy teams advance notice of the requirements and to allow them to plan when would be the best time for them to start the audit.
The audit must be started between 1st September 2025 and 3rd February 2026 to ensure there is an eight-week consecutive period for data collection. The audit should be completed no later than 31st March 2026.
The audit must be carried out with a minimum of 10 patients over four weeks, or over an eight-week period if 10 patients are not achieved. Pharmacy owners should make a record of the start and end date of the audit as they will be required to enter this information into the MYS portal when they make their declaration.
