Pharmacy First
The Pharmacy First service, which will commence on 31 January 2024, is a crucial first step in recognising and properly funding the enormous amount of healthcare advice that community pharmacies provide to the public every day and in establishing and funding community pharmacy as the first port of call for healthcare advice.
What does the service involve?
The new Advanced service involves pharmacists providing advice and NHS-funded treatment, where clinically appropriate, for seven common conditions:
- sinusitis
- sore throat
- acute otitis media
- infected insect bite
- impetigo
- shingles
- uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women.
Consultations for these seven clinical pathways can be provided to patients presenting to the pharmacy as well as those referred by NHS 111, general practices and others.
In the clinical pathway consultations with a pharmacist, people with symptoms suggestive of the seven conditions will be provided with advice and will be supplied, where clinically necessary, with a prescription-only treatment under a Patient Group Direction (PGD) or in one pathway, an over-the-counter medicine (supplied under a clinical protocol), all at NHS expense.
Full details of the service can be found on the Community Pharmacy England website.
You can locate pharmacies that have signed up for the service by logging in to the NHS Service Finder. More information can be found on NHS England website.
*From April 2025*
Pharmacy First Changes Timeline – below is a month-by-month breakdown of key actions required under the 2025/26 Pharmacy First contract changes.
Shilpa Shah, Chief Officer for Community Pharmacy North East London, has kindly shared their training webinars with PCPA (Primary Care Pharmacy Association) on the 7 Pharmacy First Conditions and Minor Ailments.
Changes to PharmOutcomes log in – PharmOutcomes New MFA Process
MFAFAQ (includes fallback paper forms for the seven conditions).
The PharmOutcomes team have created templates to support all elements of the service. There are three key parts to the Pharmacy First service:
1. Minor Illness consultation with the pharmacist.
2. Urgent medicines supply.
3. Clinical pathways consultations supporting the treatment of seven common conditions under a Patient Group Direction (PGD) or protocol.
As parts 1 and 2 are referral services only, pharmacy teams will see many similarities with the existing CPCS templates as far as template design is concerned. This will help to make this service transition as seamless as possible for users.
Pharmacy First User GuidePharmacyFirstServiceGuideV2
Training video on how to use PharmOutcomes to record the Pharmacy First consultation.
