Seven in 10 (70%) pharmacies would like patients to be able to pre-book Pharmacy First appointments, a new poll by C+D has revealed.
According to the snapshot poll of almost 240 community pharmacy workers, conducted last month, 13% of respondents already offer patients the option to pre-book Pharmacy First services at their pharmacy.
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A further 12% said that they would not like a Pharmacy First booking system, while 5% selected “maybe/don’t know”.
Well pharmacist manager Sarah Tuck commented that a “national booking system” like that offered for Covid and flu jabs would be “beneficial”.
“Lack of engagement”
It comes as two pharmacists have launched a digital platform that enables patients to “find and book” Pharmacy First and other appointments with local community pharmacies.
Founders Rajshri Owen and Altaf Vaiya said that while LocalPharmacyFirst.com is “currently focused on NHS services”, they are “already working to expand the platform” to include private clinical offerings.
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Vaiya commented on C+D’s poll that he and Owen created the platform after seeing “the lack of engagement and difficulty patients had when trying to book into Pharmacy First services”.
“Many patients still don’t know what services their local pharmacy can provide or how to access them and this is a genuine concern,” they last week (November 25) told C+D.
They added that the response has been “extremely positive” so far, “both from community pharmacies and at integrated care board (ICB) level”.
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And it follows the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) revealing last month that there has been “no change in resistance” to a common urinary tract infection (UTI) antibiotic following its introduction to the Pharmacy First service.
A new UKHSA report on antimicrobial use and resistance in England for 2024/25 - which this year looked at antibiotic prescriptions from the Pharmacy First service for the first time - found “no change in resistance” to nitrofurantoin between 2023 and 2024 following its introduction to the service last February.
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Meanwhile, the pharmacy negotiator last week highlighted that while there is “public appetite” for accessing a “wider range of services” in pharmacies, a campaign must “clarify” they are not “replacing” GP services.
GP leaders last month demanded a ballot over industrial action including “non-compliance with GP Connect” – the service that allows pharmacists to update GP records with Pharmacy First consultation summaries – but the doctors’ union told C+D there are no current plans to hold one.
