Pharmacy First service
The new Pharmacy First service, which was announced as part of an an agreement setting out how the £645 million investment pledged within the Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care will be used to support community pharmacy services.
- Pharmacy First (clinical pathways consultations) – new element (includes walk-ins)
- Pharmacy First (urgent repeat medicine supply) – previously commissioned as the CPCS
- Pharmacy First (NHS referrals for minor illness) – previously commissioned as the CPCS
Infections to be managed via Clinical Pathways:
| Clinical Pathway
Uncomplicated UTI |
Age range
Women 16-64 years |
Patients may be referred to Pharmacy First by one of the following organisations/routes:
- NHS 111 telephony or 111 online
- Integrated urgent care clinical assessment service (IUC CAS)
- 999 services
- General practice (low acuity minor illness conditions and the seven clinical pathways only)
- Other urgent and emergency care provider (e.g. UTC, ED, UCC)
Additionally, for the clinical pathway consultations only, patients can access the service by attending or contacting the pharmacy directly without the need for a referral.
An initial fixed payment of £2,000 was available to claim from December up to the the launch of the Pharmacy First service. From February 2024, in addition to the £15 consultation fee, a monthly fixed payment of £1,000 will be paid to pharmacy owners who meet a minimum activity threshold of clinical pathways consultations (the threshold will increase over time). Full details are available in Briefing 030/23: Funding for Pharmacy First, and other funding-related changes in the Recovery Plan deal.
Please click here to visit CPE for more information on the following:
- Introduction and background
- Service specification and other documentation
- Getting ready to provide the service
- Claim window for initial £2,000 fixed payment
- PGDs and protocols
- Webinars on-demand & drop-in sessions
- Pathway videos
- NHS England video clips
- Funding and claiming payment
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Resources for the service
- Resources to promote the service
- Competency and Training requirements
Competency and training requirements:
The pharmacy owner must ensure that pharmacists providing the service are competent to do so, including the use of an otoscope (except for DSPs) and be familiar with the clinical pathways, clinical protocol and PGDs. This may involve completion of training.
CPPE Pharmacy First page (including the Pharmacy First self-assessment framework)
Other training options we have been made aware of:
Agilio iLearn Pharmacy First training
Local ENT/Otoscope training for pharmacists (including trainee pharmacists):
Humber LPC held local face to face training on the 31st Jan 2024 & the 14th of March 2024. Thank you to all who attended, we hope you found it useful and went away more confident in how to provide the service. Attendees have been sent a certificate of attendance.
No further local training is planned, however please see training resources above.
PharmOutcomes training guides:
A series of Pharmacy First guides have been provided by PharmOutcomes along with an instructional video guide for more information on how the service operates.
- PharmOutcomes User Guide – Pharmacy First service guide
- PharmOutcomes User Guide – Provider Pays – Costs, sign up and joining affinity groups
- PharmOutcomes User Guide – PharmOutcomes Direct Registration Guide
- PharmOutcomes User Guide – How to join an affinity group
- NHS Pharmacy First – Minor Illness and Clinical Pathways video
View on PharmOutcomes website.
The webinar from PharmOutcomes held on the 28th Feb 2024 is now available on-demand and can be accessed via the link below.
The webinar aimed to cover:
• How the Pharmacy First service works vs CPCS – what’s new!
• The GP referral process – how they’re supporting GP teams to identify patients suitable for pharmacy referral.
• How PharmOutcomes is supporting pharmacies with referral management.
• How to manage urgent medicines supply.
• How to view the patient GP record in PharmOutcomes and an overview of the writeback process into the GP record.
Virtual Outcomes Pharmacy First training:
Do you know that the Pharmacy First Service consists of 3 elements – 2 existing (CPCS) and 1 new one?
Do you know what your pharmacy needs to have in place and what training your pharmacists need to do?
Do you want to know the key points from the 7 clinical pathways?
This training will answer all these questions and more.
Annex D Key Contact Details:
Annex D’s for Pharmacy First have been prepared by the ICB and were emailed to all pharmacies on Friday the 26th of January 2024. There is one for Hull and ERoY, one for NL, and one for NEL. These are similar to the old Annex Cs required under CPCS. If you are unable to find the email or need copy of these contact details then please email:england.pharmacyreturns@nhs.net or humber.lpc@nhs.net.
ICB Newsletters:
Pharmacy First newsletters are sent by the ICB to all pharmacies NHS shared mailboxes. The March edition of the newsletter contains important information on PF waste disposal, actions to take should you need to temporarily withdraw from the service, and more…
HNY ICB Mar 24 Pharmacy First Newsletter (CP)
