There’s a lot of time and energy spent asking questions about what else can community pharmacy deliver. Independent prescribing, long-term condition management, healthcare screening, neighbourhood health, integrated care. You name it.
But the questions feel a bit rhetorical because the sector has proven its clinical capabilities time and time again.
For me the real question we should be asking – aside from of course whether these new services can be appropriately funded – is why are we still making it so difficult for community pharmacies to deliver new services when they are commissioned?
Huge
We need to bring together pharmacy, general practice and technology providers to design the infrastructure needed to make independent prescribing as part of the Pharmacy First service work at scale.
Because that feels like one of, if not the biggest, hurdles we must overcome. Especially if the demand is going to be as high as predicted.
The CCA estimates that with independent prescribing and a wider range of conditions added to Pharmacy First in England, demand could jump to 40 million consultations a year.
Why are we still making it so difficult for community pharmacies to deliver new services when they are commissioned?
That’s a huge increase on the 3.3 million consultations the Department of Health and Social Care reports was delivered from the service in March 2025 to February 2026.
Siloed systems
Yes, we have outstanding dispensing systems. We have excellent clinical service platforms. We have the technology to support integrated care. But all too often we’re prevented from connecting them.
Again, this isn’t a question of ability. The technology is already there. But the infrastructure we need wrapped around it isn’t.
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We need better co-ordination, governance and the ability to join the digital dots together.
But as the extended independent prescribing service is set to roll out in just a matter of months, we really haven’t got long to get it right.
And that’s a real worry for pharmacists.
Confidence crisis
Since the news was announced that independent prescribing would be added to Pharmacy First, we’ve been fielding countless questions from pharmacy teams worried about how practically they can achieve the government’s clinical ambitions for the service.
Questions which, sadly, we haven’t yet been able to answer.
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Among a laundry list of worries, this lack of clarity has prompted some to opt out of providing the expanded service and the feeling for some is that the sector is being set up to fail with independent prescribing.
Be serious
If we’re serious about independent prescribing transforming community pharmacy, we must stop thinking in terms of individual systems and instead build connected patient journeys.
But to do that we must work together. We need to collectively agree the outcomes we want to achieve from Pharmacy First, and independent prescribing, and then design the infrastructure it needs to fully support it.
Because without solid digital foundations, we’re creating more barriers and burdens for pharmacies, GPs and patients.
Community pharmacy certainly doesn’t need more pilots proving what it can do.
But it does need better infrastructure and collaboration to deliver what it has already proved it’s clinically capable of.
Tracey Robertson is managing director of Cegedim Rx