Labour MP for North Somerset and pharmacist Sadik Al-Hassan said that a new community pharmacy prescribing service is “a good aspiration” but that he does “not think we can do it this year”.
Speaking at a PharmaTech Connect roundtable event in Westminster last week (March 12), Al-Hassan said that it is “entirely possible” for the new service to begin in “two or three years”.
He added that the proposed service is “deliverable” but is “limited by what we do currently”, adding that pharmacies will need “read-write” access to patient records so they can have the “information that GPs currently hold on the patient”.
Read more: DH: Pharmacist prescribing service ‘central’ to relieving hospital pressure
“We need to have consistency across pharmacy because you can’t walk into one pharmacy and get a service and then walk into another pharmacy and not, because that undermines the trust that the patient has for the service delivery,” he said.
“We have that right now with Pharmacy First, because some pharmacies will do Pharmacy First really well [but] some pharmacies won’t,” he added.
And he told delegates that “pharmacy has to be careful about its professional boundaries” and define whether pharmacists are “people who diagnose”, supply medicines or prescribe – as well as what that means for others who hold those roles.
Read more: UPDATED: Labour promises ‘community pharmacist prescribing service’
But National Pharmacy Association (NPA) chair Nick Kaye, who was also a speaker at the event, said that he already diagnoses patients when they “come in and I sign something over the counter, even if I’m not a prescriber”.
“I’m diagnosing, I’m prescribing and I’m dispensing,” he said, adding that he is pleased by the government pledge that “prescribing in community pharmacy is going to be a key point of what it’s going to do”.
Read more: Just 13% of two-year Pharmacy First budget spent in 8 months
Kaye also called for a “different way of funding” Pharmacy First, saying that capacity for the service should be bought.
He told delegates that if 500 appointments were bought, community pharmacies could “plan for that” and that “the system will shift to fill that capacity”.
“Think like a businessperson”
Meanwhile, pharmacy app Charac founder and chief executive Santosh Sahu raised concerns on the success of how Pharmacy First had been marketed to the public.
And he called for technology investment in services like Pharmacy First to free pharmacists’ time “so that they can get their head up and think like a businessperson to do other services”.
Read more: ‘Immense pressure’: Managers impose Pharmacy First targets
But he also challenged whether pharmacies should be waiting for the NHS or government to help them with digitisation and publicising their services.
“Why does this industry need this much government support, where the corner shop or an independent shop next to that pharmacy has to invest its own money to digitise?” he asked.
Read more: Pharmacy First: Government ‘acting on’ GP refusal to engage
“If you take any other sector, it’s on the business owner to make sure their services are known in the community…whose job it is to educate the community about the true capability of a pharmacy?” he said.
In July, health minister Karin Smyth said that the Labour Party’s flagship community pharmacist prescribing service could be “central” to alleviate some of the pressures on hospitals.
Read more: ICB investigating plunge in Pharmacy First GP referrals
It came after the Labour Party’s general election manifesto said it would introduce a “community pharmacist prescribing service” that would improve patients' “access to services and treatment through new routes”.
And last week, pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock revealed that £82 million of the “up to” £645m Pharmacy First budget – just 12.7% of the two-year funding package – was spent in the first eight months of 2024/25.
Also last week, an NHS official revealed that they are “not aware” of further plans to publicise the Pharmacy First service.
