Community Pharmacy England (CPE) this week (October 29) shared the findings of its 2024 Pharmacy Advice Audit, which collected data from more than a third (3,916) of community pharmacies earlier this year.
It showed that there have been nearly 150,000 “informal referrals” to pharmacies by GPs and NHS 111 every week this year.
This means that every community pharmacy in England carried out an average of “14.5 informal consultations” every week in 2024 that “should instead” be referrals to the Pharmacy First service, according to CPE.
Read more: NHSE: ‘We need to respect’ GPs refusing to let pharmacies update records
CPE stressed that all of these referrals could have been made to the Pharmacy First service, “effectively removing more than £115m-worth of funding from the pharmacy network” for 2024.
Overall, it found that 61,837 patient consultations fell outside of an NHS-funded service during the audit, with the average pharmacy completing around 22 such consultations a day.
“This equates to 69 million unfunded consultations taking place in England’s community pharmacies per year” – or 1.3 million a week – it said.
“Simply not fair”
CPE chief executive Janet Morrison said the audit showed “just how much the nation and the wider NHS rely on community pharmacies”.
“Community pharmacies are in a desperate state and cannot keep giving this advice for free - they urgently need a funding uplift to prevent further closures,” she said.
“It makes no sense that the core benefit of Pharmacy First – as a walk-in service – is not fully funded and it is simply not fair that pharmacies on the edge of collapse are being expected to offer support for minor illnesses falling outside of its strict parameters for free,” Morrison added.
Read more: CPE to audit ‘huge amount of unpaid work’ triggered by Pharmacy First
Meanwhile, National Pharmacy Association (NPA) chief executive Paul Rees said that this extra workload is “simply not sustainable” for pharmacies and is “pushing [them] to the brink”.
“It’s clear the workload of an average pharmacy has drastically increased whilst funding has been reduced significantly,” he added.
Read more: ‘Critical’ CPE unpaid pharmacy advice audit extended to June 28
CPE announced its plan to carry out an audit on unpaid work in May after the launch of the Pharmacy First service at the start of this year.
It said it hoped that the results would “drive lobbying efforts” and support its ongoing call for more funding.
Meanwhile, NHS England (NHSE) officials have said that “we need to respect” GP practices who choose not to engage with Pharmacy First, as the pharmacy minister revealed that almost 30% of practices made no referrals into the service in August.