England CPhO David Webb this week (May 13) told delegates at the annual Sigma conference that “there are definitely things [NHS England] needs to learn” on DPP access.
The comment came after Bristol contractor Simon Harris said that his “biggest challenge…over the last couple of years is actually finding a DPP that can support [his] pharmacists training to be independent prescribers (IPs)”.
“Up and down the country there are various differences in terms of how DPPs are obtained,” he added.
Read more: ‘Very desperate’: Boom in pay-for-DPP services as GP surgery ‘doors close’
“Is there a way that you can look into standardising and actually reimbursing people to put themselves forward as a DPP to support the development of IPs?” he asked.
The CPhO refused to confirm whether reimbursement is on the table, but did admit that “there’s been a tremendous effort” to aid DPP access.
“At the moment we’re asking our regional pharmacy heads of education…to support this in each patch,” he said.
Read more: DPP shortage: ‘Excess’ pharmacy trainee places ‘on the face of it’, says GPhC chief
“I know it hasn’t been easy in places, but at the moment it’s looking like all the places are viable so that’s a really positive step,” he added.
“And I think what we need to do as this year gets underway is reflect on what we’ve had to go through to get to this point and therefore build something for the future,” Webb said.
From 2025/26, NHSE has said that all foundation trainees “must have access to a DPP and a prescribing learning environment” – but sector bodies have repeatedly expressed their concerns about a shortage of DPPs.
Pay-for-DPP services boom
Meanwhile, C+D last month revealed that private provider DPP Connect has helped a snowballing number of pharmacists who “feel like they’re missing out”.
For between £2,000 and £2,400, the company matches individuals with a DPP from its pool of professionals who have “different scopes of practice [across] different geographical locations” and delivers “about £1,000-worth of training to go with it as well”, it said.
In the first two months of 2025, some 82 students were already booked onto the service – almost triple the total 30 students booked in 2024.
Read more: Proposals to make DPP ‘routine’ job responsibility are ‘troubling’, warns PDA
Queries to the company’s dedicated DPP hotline had also exploded, almost doubling from 145 in July to 236 January.
In September, General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) chief executive Duncan Rudkin told Avicenna conference delegates that the regulator was “working with NHSE and others to make sure that those DPPs are there to provide the supervision” for incoming pharmacy students.
And the previous month, the pharmacists’ union warned against apparent proposals to make DPP supervision “a routine responsibility” and part of a pharmacist’s “normal job without considering job evaluation or pay”.
