Pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock yesterday (May 8) revealed that each month, a quarter of GP surgeries in England do not refer a single patient to the Pharmacy First scheme.
“Every month, approximately 75% of general practices refer at least one patient to a pharmacy under Pharmacy First,” he said, meaning 25% fail to carry out these referrals.
Read more: Pharmacy First: Government ‘acting on’ GP refusal to engage
The comment came in a written response to a parliamentary question from Labour MP for Exeter Steve Race.
Race had asked the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) “what proportion of GP surgeries have signposted patients to the Pharmacy First scheme”.
While not mandatory, GPs are encouraged to refer patients to the service – which was designed to reduce pressure on general practice itself.
“Financial incentives”
It comes after health minister Baroness Merron said in January that the government is “aware” of reports that some GPs are “unwilling to direct patients” to Pharmacy First services.
“We are acting on” this issue and “will continue to keep it under review”, she said at the time, adding that “NHS England (NHSE) is working closely with integrated care boards (ICBs), GPs and the community pharmacy sector to improve referrals.”
Read more: MP: GPs need ‘financial incentive’ to engage with Pharmacy First
And she added that new ICB primary care network (PCN) engagement leads “should be well placed to support GP teams to refer into the [Pharmacy First] service”.
In the same month, MPs also called for “financial incentives” to be introduced to encourage GPs to “work with pharmacies” and engage with Pharmacy First.
Read more: BMA: GPs not ‘reluctant’ to engage but Pharmacy First rolled out ‘too quickly’
Conservative MP for Farnham and Bordon Gregory Stafford claimed that “there are disincentives for general practitioners to embrace Pharmacy First”, calling on the government to “ensure that there are no financial disincentives to work with pharmacies”.
Pharmacy leaders had already been warning for some time that GPs were not referring patients to the service.
