The Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA) has said it “wants to see the number of GP referrals” to the Pharmacy First service “reduce over time”.
In a statement acknowledging the service’s two-year anniversary last week, the body stressed that Pharmacy First “will only reach its full potential if patients are empowered to access the service directly” and “without unnecessary and inconvenient contact with their GP first”.
It added that “improving public awareness of the service will be critical to its continued success”.
Read more: NHS has only ‘dipped its toes’ into Pharmacy First, says CCA chief
It comes after Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) chief executive Malcolm Harrison last month raised concerns that “only one in twelve Pharmacy First consultations” come from a GP referral.
“We need to understand more about why this is, because all general practices have the ability to refer people” to the service, he said.
And it follows data obtained by C+D last July revealing that GP referrals to Pharmacy First resulting in a consultation fell by a quarter between May 2024 and May 2025.
Read more: GPs call for Pharmacy First funds to be ‘reallocated’ to practices
In September, however, one sector leader told community pharmacists to “forget about” getting more Pharmacy First referrals from GPs.
Speaking at last year’s Avicenna conference, Community Pharmacy London chair Raj Matharu urged pharmacists to “forget about the GPs” because “they are not going to help you”.
Matharu told delegates that he had attended “enough meetings” where GPs “moan and bitch about Pharmacy First”, and that it is instead up to pharmacists to “make it work”.
Expand Pharmacy First
The IPA’s statement also called for Pharmacy First to be “extended” to cover a wider range of common conditions to help “take further pressure off GP practices”.
This will ensure patients can “access the care they need faster, closer to home and at a time that suits them”, it said.
“The service highlights the vital role community pharmacies play as the front door of the NHS,” it added, noting that Pharmacy First has “quickly become an essential service for patients needing timely clinical care close to home”.
Read more: Revealed: GP referrals to Pharmacy First down by quarter in a year
And the IPA stressed that “expanding and properly supporting” the Pharmacy First service can “play an important role in strengthening the sector” and “relieving pressure” across the NHS.
IPA chief executive Dr Leyla Hannbeck said that Pharmacy First “is a double win: patients get quicker access to the care they need, and pressure is taken off hard-pressed GP surgeries”.
“If the government is serious about making it easier for patients to get a GP appointment, it needs to invest in community pharmacies, the real front door of the NHS,” she added.
