NHS England (NHSE) has relaunched its Pharmacy First advertising campaign with minor tweaks, but sector leaders are concerned it still does not go far enough.

Community Pharmacy England (CPE) chief executive Janet Morrison said the campaign – which includes TV, radio and social media adverts – needs to be part of ‘a much bigger, ongoing public awareness campaign to ensure the service has maximum impact’.

The tweaked version of the campaign, which first launched in February 2024, now includes the addition of wording highlighting the specific age criteria for the different conditions within the scheme.

The Pharmacist's recent Pharmacy First roundtable suggested a lack of wider awareness of the scope of the service, while one patient suggested on X that they had been turned away from the pharmacy for not fitting the age requirement for the patient group direction (PGD).

A spokesperson for NHSE said that following 'an extensive advertising campaign earlier this year', it was 'now launching the next phase of the campaign to increase the public's awareness of the breadth of support community pharmacy teams can offer to patients on their doorstep'.

Malcolm Harrison, chief executive of the Company Chemists' Association (CCA), welcomed the 'relaunch of the advertising campaign', but said that 'any marketing of the service needs to be more robust' than it had been previously.

'We are concerned that the last one had a limited impact. Unless there is a step-change in the volume of promotional activity, we can only expect a similar outcome.

'Patient awareness, together with GP referrals, remain low,' he warned.

The CCA has previously highlighted that some Local Pharmaceutical Committees (LPCs) have secured funding to raise awareness of Pharmacy First, as well as to ‘facilitate direct engagement’ between pharmacies and GP practices.

And a recent poll by Community Pharmacy England CPE found that almost half of pharmacies in England have seen a reduction in Pharmacy First electronic referrals from GP practices since many GPs began 'working to rule' in August.

Ms Morrison said: 'It’s good that we are finally seeing the resumption of the NHS Pharmacy First marketing campaign, alongside new resources to help with promotion, as we head into winter. But we need this to be part of a much bigger, ongoing public awareness campaign to ensure the service has maximum impact.'

She added: 'NHS England must continue to effectively advertise the service to the public on a regular basis and to increase referral rates from general practices and NHS 111.

'A much longer-term campaign is a key way to support patients and the public to receive care closer to home via Pharmacy First; to help improve access to general practice; and to allow community pharmacies to maximise the amount of allocated funding that they can earn from this important service.'

Meanwhile, a recent survey commissioned by the NPA found that more than a third (36%) of patients were unaware of Pharmacy First.

Gareth Jones, director of corporate affairs at the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) told The Pharmacist: 'Much more promotional activity is needed, on an ongoing basis, to help embed an appreciable change in consumer behaviour.

'Pharmacy First is a vital NHS service and it’s important that everyone who could benefit is aware of what is available.'

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and CPE have both shared promotional materials for pharmacies to use to advertise the service.