Pharmacy First consultations in pharmacy multiples rose by 10% in the week before Christmas, compared to the previous week, the Company Chemists' Association (CCA) has revealed.

CCA member pharmacies delivered 21,862 Pharmacy First consultations in the week beginning 16 December, compared to 19,778 the previous week.

Given that CCA members make up around a third of community pharmacies in England, the CCA estimated that the entire community sector was likely to have delivered 65,000 Pharmacy First consultations in the week leading up to Christmas.*

'It is common to see spikes of Pharmacy First consultations around bank holidays and when other providers may not be readily accessible,' the trade body noted, highlighting that there was a 15% spike in activity when GP surgeries and other NHS providers were affected by the CrowdStrike IT outage in July 2024.

Taseta Severn, a Rowland's pharmacist in Warsop, Mansfield, said her pharmacy had seen 'a surge of patients over and before Christmas'.

'Lots of people do not want to be ill over Christmas so [they] wanted easy and quick access to care, which we could do in the pharmacy,' she added.

'The Pharmacy First service is very well received locally especially during holiday periods when GP appointments can be hard to get, [and] the other alternative is walk-in centres, which for our location is a good few miles away.

'As such the pharmacy is very convenient.'

CCA chief executive Malcolm Harrison said it was 'great to see the real-time impact Pharmacy First has within a community, especially when other parts of the NHS may not be readily accessible'.

'The service has delivered in a short space of time and there’s potential to do so much more,' he added.

And he said that expanding Pharmacy First would help to deliver 'even greater patient access into primary care' and was 'integral to realising the government’s shifts of shifting care out of hospital and into community and focusing on preventing sickness rather than treating it'.

'Community pharmacies offer an accessible and convenient way to do this,' Mr Harrison said.

The government has committed to 'maximising' Pharmacy First approaches to ear, nose and throat (ENT) health as part of its elective reform plan, published earlier this month.