The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) is in discussions with NHS England about the potential for “clinical” pharmacists to work in community pharmacies, it said in a summary of its committee meeting published on Monday (February 18).

PSNC has met with NHS England officials “on several occasions in recent weeks” to discuss the “broad topic” of whether “clinical” pharmacists could be employed by community pharmacies, it told C+D, and held its own internal discussions on the potential to pilot a model of how this could work in practice.*

C+D has asked PSNC for more details about the role “clinical” pharmacists could play in this pilot, if it becomes a reality.

These pharmacists could be recruited by primary care networks – groups of local GP practices covering 30-50,000 patients each – as outlined in the five-year GP contract, PSNC said.

Responding to the GP contract announcement last month, PSNC chief executive Simon Dukes said: “We must find ways for community pharmacists to perform some of the roles of the primary care network 'clinical' pharmacists.”

PSNC's committee used its February meeting to discuss the role community pharmacy could play in both the GP contract and the NHS long-term plan, and how the sector “must work to integrate itself into the emerging primary care networks”.

This article has been slightly amended to clarify that while NHS England and PSNC have had broad discussions about placing "clinical" pharmacists in community pharmacies, discussions on a pilot of this model have only been held internally at PSNC.