While 96% of pharmacies are currently registered for Pharmacy First, 87% of registered pharmacies are ‘actively delivering’ the service, NHS England has revealed.

Data shared by NHS England during a recent webinar for GPs was that 1.8 million Pharmacy First consultations were completed between the launch of the service in January and the end of June.

In addition, only 8% of patients using the Pharmacy First service are referred back to their GP practice, NHS England has claimed.

NHS England’s new Pharmacy First data also showed that 92% of pharmacies are signed up to provide the blood pressure check service and 77% to the pharmacy contraception service.

Around 7,300 pharmacies (69%) are signed up to all three services (Pharmacy First, blood pressure and contraception).

GPs attending the NHS England webinar asked for clarification on how many patients are being sent back to general practice from the service.

In response, NHS England said: ‘Pharmacists are required to provide details to the practice if they assess the patient and then decide a referral to a GP is required. The referral rate back to GP is at 8%.’

During the webinar, Pallavi Dawda, head of clinical strategy for community pharmacy at NHS England, reassured GPs on the supply of antibiotics through Pharmacy First.

She said: ‘We take the risk of AMR very seriously, and we are reviewing the data as it comes in from consultations, so that we make sure that we can put appropriate AMR mitigations into place should we have any concern.

‘The clinical pathways all adhered to NICE guidelines, as well as oversight from the NHS England AMR programme board that’s chaired by our national medical director, and it has also been overseen by our chief medical officer for England as well.

‘We’re really pleased that over 96% of pharmacies have registered to deliver the service, and 87% of those are actually delivering it month in, month out.

‘So if you as a GP practice are not sure which pharmacies are delivering the service, you will see that most of the pharmacies around you will actively be delivering it.’

Dr Emma Nash, a GP in Hampshire, said that the service is not consistent in her area. She told Pulse: ‘We have a pharmacist who is a prescribing pharmacist beyond the PGD – so little comes back.

‘We’ve given up with any other pharmacies as they reject a lot with capacity of one or two per day and bounce back with a low threshold.’

Earlier this year, a group of MPs warned that Pharmacy First ‘will fail’ if patients ‘keep having to return to their GPs’.

A version of this article first appeared on our sister title Pulse.