A focus on using community pharmacies to relieve the burden on primary care could lead to the 'unintended consequence' that pharmacists' unique medicines skills are not utilised, the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has warned.

In a report reflecting on the first year of Pharmacy First in England, the PDA highlighted that providing more clinical services at the same time as increased dispensing was putting strain on community pharmacy teams.

Clinical check 'essential and key role for pharmacists'

In particular, it highlighted the 'essential and key role for pharmacists in ensuring that the medicines patients receive is clinically appropriate for them'.

And in the context of an ageing population and the prevalence of polypharmacy, 'the unique skills of the pharmacist could be better used for ensuring the clinically appropriate dispensing and supply of medicines to patients', the report added.

'The mere focus for pharmacists to relieve the burden on primary care (and GP workload) may ultimately lead to the unintended consequence that the core skills and five years of training of a pharmacist are not utilised, and they are used to instead only deliver vaccinations or provide antibiotics for a minor ailment,' the report warned.

Call for two or more pharmacists per pharmacy

Increased dispensing and services, as well as a reduction in the number of pharmacies, suggested a need for two or more pharmacists in every pharmacy, the report claimed.

And 'organisations which represent pharmacists and not just pharmacy owners' should be included when new services are planned and considered, the PDA added.

It stressed that workforce issues, including minimum staffing levels, should be considered when services were commissioned or expanded.

In 2022, the PDA published a vision for community pharmacies as high-street healthcare clinics. This called for two pharmacists per pharmacy to oversee both dispensing and clinical services where possible.