NHS England is going to fund “at least” another 125 pharmacists to work in GP practices, its chief executive has announced.

The commissioning body in July pledged £15 million to partially fund 250 practice pharmacists in pilot sites across the country, and Simon Stevens said last week (October 13) that it would increase this number by more than 50%.

GPs had until last month to register their interest in the initiative, and Mr Stevens told a King’s Fund summit that NHS England had been “absolutely staggered” by the responses it had received.

NHS England confirmed to C+D yesterday (October 21) that the £15m funding will be increased to cover the extra pharmacists, but said it is “still working on the details” of the amount.

Mr Stevens referred to an NHS Alliance report published earlier this month that showed that one in six GP consultations “could potentially be done by other members of the primary care team”. This showed that there are “opportunities to redesign care”, he said in his summit speech.

“The good news is that because general practice’s back is against the wall, people are willing to contemplate solutions that would have previously been off limits,” Mr Stevens added.
 

What is the practice pharmacist scheme?

Under NHS England’s scheme, the organisation will install one senior pharmacist and five clinical pharmacists in pilot sites across England for three years.

The commissioning body will pay 60% of these pharmacists’ fees for their first year, dropping to 20% by the third and final year, it said at the time. The remainder of the funding will be supplied by the GP practices involved.

Have you applied to be a practice pharmacist?

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