Government to ‘ease pressure on GPs’ by expanding use of pharmacists, says minister
The Government is planning to ‘ease pressure on GPs’ by expanding the use of pharmacists’ clinical skills, the primary care minister has said.
Stephen Kinnock said that ‘stronger collaboration’ between community pharmacy and general practice is ‘vital’ to the future success of the NHS, and that is the ‘direction of travel’ that the Government wants to take.
It comes after the Government announced at the end of last month that pharmacists who hold an independent prescribing qualification will be able to assess patients and prescribe medicines directly for specific conditions in an expansion of Pharmacy First.
Today, in a video message addressing the Community Pharmacy and General Practice conference, organised by Pulse’s publisher Cogora, Mr Kinnock said: ‘We’re focused on easing pressure on GPs by ensuring pharmacists can make full use of their clinical skills.
‘That’s why, as part of the recent community pharmacy contractual framework settlement for 2026/27 we announced the introduction of NHS pharmacist independent prescribing nationally from this autumn, building on the success of Pharmacy First.
‘We know there is more to do, but we are already seeing major improvements in patient experience, 75.3% of patients now say it’s easy to contact their GP, up by 14.4 percentage points since July 2024 and that progress is down to the incredible work that you’re doing across primary care.’
Mr Kinnock added that general practice and community pharmacy working together will be ‘central’ to the delivery of the 10-year plan for the NHS, with care delivered in the community by ‘skilled professionals who know their patients best’.
As part of the expansion, from the autumn community pharmacist prescribers will provide up to five new Pharmacy First prescribing-only pathways, with options to be considered including:
- bacterial conjunctivitis
- allergic conjunctivitis
- oral thrush
- skin infections
- respiratory tract infections
In advance of their rollout, the new pathways will need to be approved by a clinical reference group.
Mr Kinnock said: ‘As this event rightly highlights, stronger collaboration between community pharmacy and general practice is not just desirable, it’s vital to the future success of the NHS.
‘This is the direction of travel, a more accessible, more preventative, and more community-based health service, enabled by modern technology and delivered by the skilled professionals who know their patients best.
‘Community pharmacy is embedded in every neighbourhood, and general practice sits at the heart of continuous care alongside the wider primary workforce.
‘You will be central to turning the ambitions of the 10-year health plan into reality for patients. Crucially, the success of this plan depends on you, on your ability to work together, use your skills to the fullest and drive this change forward.’
The Community Pharmacy and General Practice conference, organised by Pulse’s publisher Cogora and the National Pharmacy Association, takes place today and tomorrow in Birmingham, bringing together over a thousand GPs and pharmacists.
Pharmacy First has aimed to shift workload to pharmacies from GP practices, by allowing direct prescribing for seven common conditions, but has attracted criticism due to some pharmacies directing patients back to general practice for a variety for reasons, and GPs believing that the Pharmacy First money would be better off spent in general practice.
However, speaking this morning at the opening breakfast session of the Community Pharmacy and General Practice conference, associate director of the Institute for Collaborative Working Trevor Gore argued that GPs and pharmacists are natural collaborators rather than enemies, having only 8% of the overall NHS budget to share.
