New Pharmacy First pathways and an extended claim window for the service have been announced as part of the 2026/27 pharmacy funding deal by Community Pharmacy England (CPE).
On May 29, CPE confirmed that independent prescribers (IPs) will be able to “provide up to five new Pharmacy First prescribing-only pathways”, while a two month “late claim window” for Pharmacy First and the New Medicine Service (NMS) will be mean that Pharmacy First services now have a three month claim period.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DH) will also complete “further work” to “consider whether additional late, corrected and discretionary claims options… can be introduced”, a flexibility that CPE “sought” during negotiations.
Read more: Scope of Pharmacy First conditions ‘under review’
In January, the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) chair Olivier Picard called the denial of claims for late Pharmacy First payments “outrageous” after the claims window was reduced from three months to a month as part of the 2025/26 funding deal. It later caught out several pharmacists who missed out on payments for providing Pharmacy First services.
Funding
Funding previously ring-fenced for Pharmacy First has also now been combined with the “core CPCF sum” including the Pharmacy Contraception Service (PCS) and the Hypertension Case-Finding Service (HCFS).
When Pharmacy First launched in 2024, £645m was allocated over two years for its creation and launch.
In September 2024, CPE said the £645m allocated for Pharmacy First was “unlikely to be spent”, with CPE’s NHS services director Alastair Buxton telling the Avicenna conference he believed NHS England’s attitude was “if you earn it, you get it, but it’s not your money”.
In the 2025/26 deal, £215m of the £3.296bn was allocated for Pharmacy First services.
Some £3.636bn was agreed between CPE and the DH a a total CPCF funding package this year, with any previously ringfenced Pharmacy First funding being absorbed into this total.
CPE said combining all sums “guarantees the funding envelope to the sector” and “removes the previous risk of underspend”.
Read more: BREAKING: CPE announces contract funding deal for 2026/27
It represents a funding uplift of 10.3% compared to the 2025/2026 funding deal, following the the 19.7% uplift to the CPCF across 2024 to 2025, and 2025 to 2026.
Capping retained
CPE also said the “current capping mechanism” for Pharmacy First consultations has been retained.
For IPs, there will be a cap for consultations, with different limits set including one for “pharmacies signed up to provide prescribing services” and “one for those who are not”.
Read more: New Pharmacy First cash, bands and thresholds agreed
The “bundling” requirements for pharmacy owners, who must be signed up to deliver the PCS and the HCFS in order to deliver Pharmacy First, have been “retained” with “no further additions to the requirements”.
CPE and the DH also said “further work” is being completed to set “high level caps on the HCFS and the Minor Illness strand of Pharmacy First” and it is “reconsidering caps” on Pharmacy First Urgent Medicines Supply consultations.
Reflect realities
Reacting to the news, Pharmacists’ Defence Association director of policy and communications Alison Jones said it is “no longer acceptable for major service developments to be designed without the direct involvement of workforce representatives”.
“If the government wants this to succeed, it must match ambition with proper workforce planning, investment in staffing, and clear standards for safe delivery”, she added.
She added the PDA “stands ready to engage constructively with policymakers to help ensure that the expansion of Pharmacy First supports patients and reflects the realities facing the pharmacists delivering care”.
Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) head of policy Dr Nick Thayer said there was “clear scope to expand Pharmacy First including through broader eligibility criteria and adding new clinical pathways” but that “these all need to be underpinned by adequate funding to ensure their sustainability”.
Read more: Awareness ‘biggest barrier’ to wider Pharmacy First use
And NPA chair Olivier Picard highlighted that England “lags behind Scotland, where a third of the population used Pharmacy First last year and 27 conditions can be treated at a local pharmacy.
“Expanding the number of conditions could help encourage more patients to visit their pharmacy but more can be done to turbo charge the scheme to really take pressure off the wider health system and make full use of a pharmacist skills.”
But he also reflected NPA concerns that “current funding levels mean that many pharmacies will struggle to take this development forwards, risking its success. Pharmacies cannot sustain yet more loss-making work.”
Read more: Include migraines in Pharmacy First service, CCA urges
It follows a report from the PDA, released in April, which said that community pharmacies’ workload capacity is “not sustainable”.
This was attributed to the “huge increases in prescription volume” and a “wider range of clinical services and walk-in consultations being offered”, since the introduction of Pharmacy First.