Pharmacy First Update: A Message from Our CEO

Janet Morrison, CEO of Community Pharmacy England, provided an update on Pharmacy First in a video, addressing some of the concerns pharmacy owners have, including monthly payment thresholds.

In her video message, Janet highlights the incredible early achievements of Pharmacy First and stresses the importance of the service and how it should evolve over time. But she also discusses the challenges of changing public behaviour and the serious concerns raised by increasing payment thresholds.

At its June meeting, the Community Pharmacy Committee for England discussed the rollout of Pharmacy First, including concerns about monthly payment thresholds. This critical issue has already been raised with the DHSC and NHS England, and a range of possible solutions are being considered.

In the meantime, Community Pharmacy England will continue to troubleshoot, update resources and share best practice to support pharmacy teams. We also continue to lobby NHS England to continue to market the service, both to the public and to other healthcare providers, and have developed a range of resources to help promote the service to patients and GPs.

Watch the video message from Janet Morrison, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy England:

Janet Morrison, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy England, said of Pharmacy First:

“Pharmacy First is a vital service for community pharmacies, demonstrating the growing recognition of the sector’s vital role in primary care and a major development in clinical services that others can build on. Community pharmacies have done an outstanding job in delivering this service, despite a very tight implementation schedule and initial challenges with IT issues.

“Unfortunately, the ability of pharmacy owners to meet monthly payment thresholds is a major and ongoing concern. Pharmacies are reliant on NHS England and the Department to attract people to the service, but after a disappointing public marketing campaign, we do not believe we are seeing the number of walk-ins or referrals that we need.

“Many questions remain, including about the full impact of seasonality, and we are working through this at pace with the NHS and the Department. During the initial negotiations on Pharmacy First we had to make the case very strongly for upfront and monthly payments and we will continue to emphasise to the new government how essential these payments are. It is completely unreasonable to penalise pharmacies financially for the NHS’s failure to drive behavioural change among GPs and GPs.

“Discussions are ongoing with the Department and NHS England to find solutions as we all share the goal of making this service a success.”