Two years on, the PDA looks at how Pharmacy First has performed, considering the NHS 10 Year Health Plan signals the need to reimagine the neighbourhood community pharmacy service.
Despite a rushed and under-resourced implementation, the PDA welcomed the English Pharmacy First Service (PFS) when it was launched in January 2024. The service has been an undoubted success for patients and the NHS alike. In its second full year of operation, it delivered over 6 million consultations (including minor illness and emergency supply consultations), which was a 25% increase from the first year.
The funding for the PFS was in addition to the agreed amount in the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework, so it provided a welcome boost in income for pharmacy owners, which could have been used for extra staffing resources.
However, this latest report from the PDA has found that total staffing numbers per pharmacy, despite the substantial growth in workload (including Pharmacy First), have not increased.
The PDA has also looked at the growth in other services (including the core dispensing service) which are provided from community pharmacies. The data in the report demonstrates that there has been ongoing year-on-year growth in both dispensing volume and other clinical services volume.
The report discusses whether the continuing increase in the volume of work has led to total system capacity being reached or even exceeding safe levels, considering the lack of increase in both staffing and premises capacity.
The report also calls for funding improvements to pharmacy premises, including the addition of larger and better-quality clinical consultation rooms. It suggests that this, together with additional pharmacist recruitment, would support the continuing evolution of existing and new services, such as the important prescribing service envisioned by the NHS 10-year plan.
The report concludes with a call for the inclusion of the PDA in contract discussions as representatives of the pharmacist workforce, and for it to be part of the planned reimagining of the neighbourhood pharmacy service and estate to support its evolution into a multi-pharmacist, multi-consulting room healthcare setting.
Read the full PDA report here
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