The Government has announced a £3bn funding deal for community pharmacies, which it hopes will help ‘free up’ appointments in general practice and GP time.
The Department of Health and Social Care confirmed today that it has agreed funding worth an extra £617m over two years, following a six-week consultation with the profession’s representative body Community Pharmacy England.
The DHSC added that the deal includes ‘boosting financial incentives’ for pharmacists to identify patients with undiagnosed high blood pressure and ‘take pressure off GPs’.
A further £215m will be available for pharmacy contractors to earn through Pharmacy First, blood pressure and contraception services, while a national emergency hormonal contraception service has been commissioned.
In particular, as part of the deal:
- Pharmacy First payments for minor illnesses and clinical pathway consultations will increase from £15 to £17;
- They will also be moving to a ‘banded approach’ for the Pharmacy First monthly payment: £500 for those delivering 20-29 consultations per month and £1,000 for those that achieve 30 or more, starting from June;
- The consultation fee for both initiation and repeat supplies of contraception will be increased to £25 (a 39% increase);
- The fee for the clinic blood pressure check will be adjusted to £10 per consultation, and the fee for ABPM provision will be increased to £50.85 (a 13% increase) from April.
Announcing the deal, primary care minister Stephen Kinnock said the agreement will help free up appointments in general practice.
He said: ‘This package of record investment and reform is a vital first step to getting community pharmacies back on their feet and fit for the future.
‘The agreement shows how this government is working in partnership with community pharmacy to deliver more care for patients closer to their home, freeing up GP appointments, and catching ill-health earlier and preventing it in the first place.’
The Government also said it is writing off £193m of debt for community pharmacy owners ‘to give them confidence’ going into the new financial year starting tomorrow.
The deal is the first full-year funding to be agreed by Community Pharmacy England since 2023 after it rejected an offer from the previous Government.
It includes confirmation of a final funding settlement for this financial year worth an extra £106m compared to the previous year, and a further £375m for 2025/26. This takes the total package for the coming year to £3.073bn.
NHS England’s primary care director Dr Amanda Doyle welcomed the deal and said that through Pharmacy First patients have been given ‘easy access’ to support for common conditions, as well as blood pressure checks.
Under the service, GP practices can refer patients to community pharmacies for seven common conditions – including sore throats and ear infections – in a bid to ‘save up to 10 million general practice team appointments a year’.
But since the launch of the scheme last year, there were concerns around its efficiency, with some pharmacies reportedly directing patients back to general practice for a variety of reasons, including lack of equipment or staff, and GPs told Pulse they believed that the Pharmacy First money would be better off spent in general practice.
Dr Doyle said: ‘I welcome this funding deal for pharmacies, and I am pleased that community pharmacists will be able to build on their success in supporting patients through expanding their roles in recent years.
‘Community pharmacists and their teams are delivering important clinical services for patients in the heart of their local communities, and, through Pharmacy First, patients have been given easy access to support for common conditions, as well as blood pressure checks, oral contraception and vaccinations. This funding secures their good work for patients for the future.’
It comes after Pharmacy First consultations reached their highest numbers yet in December, with an increase in both winter ailments and GP referrals, according to new figures.
NHS Business Services Authority figures showed a total of 647,622 Pharmacy First consultations for December.
This includes 259,323 clinical pathway consultations – up from 211,386 in November which was previously the highest total to date.
December also saw the highest amount of referrals from GPs and NHS111, with 388,299 consultations for minor ailments and urgent medicine supply referrals combined, as reported by Pulse’s sister title The Pharmacist.
Last month, the Government said it was ‘acting on’ reports that some GPs have been ‘unwilling’ to direct patients to Pharmacy First.
It is a pity this funding could not go into General Practice.
It is also a little misleading, as it is not actually £ 3, 000,000, 000,000 : 00
I think they have counted it at least twice.
Pharmacies are struggling to dispense medicines. I have recently visited two to collect meds for a family member. Lengthy queues, severely people scrambling about in small spaces and every time someone at the (open) counter asked a question the entire queue aighed. I felt very sorry for the staff. Maybe GP practices could start doing dispensing to save time for pharmacies to do these new checks?
Faye, have you forgotten dispensing doctors who do this already in rural areas for 8% of total english scripts
Sadly no rise for us in DQS , dispensing fees or for staff and reimbursement terms for us worse than pharmacy
BMA did not get anything extra for us in GMS contract settlement , we are forgotten in policy and contract updates! However I agree the core function of community pharmacy is to dispense medication and their premises are designed for that, not usually for providing clinical services ( with some exceptions)
And often patients cannot get medications dispensed in a reasonable time frame because not enough money in their dispensing fees so have to chase clinical services to make money!
So long as the patient meets a checklist of criteria known only to the pharmacists then a patient may be treated, if the criteria are not met, in full, then it’s back to the merry go round of 111/GP/UTC/ED. How many times does it need to be said, general practice is for general practitioners.
Blue or Red BS anyone.Both smell the same,likely to have the same effect.Nada.
If it was £3 billion to pharmacies,
That could also equal £477,000 per every average gp practice…..