The Pharmacist will today launch an exclusive roundtable report focusing on the initial six months of Pharmacy First – based on a discussion with pharmacy and general practice stakeholders.

The roundtable deliberately sought to create conversation across the two sectors, recognising that engagement from both is needed to make a success of Pharmacy First.

The discussion, held in August this year, reflected on the first six months of the service in England, including successes, challenges and possible future direction.

Local relationships between general practice and community were explored around referrals to pharmacies and patients being sent back to their GP, as part of the conversation.

The roundtable also highlighted clear issues around funding and workload pressures within both sectors that underpin many of the challenges facing the service.

Our attendees agreed that Pharmacy First is not a solution to GP access pressures nor to the community pharmacy funding crisis.

Throughout the discussion, some clear points emerged on clinical issues and patient experience. Attendees shared examples of initiatives that had worked in their local areas to improve the service.

And suggestions were made as to how the service – including what clinical pathways were included – could be refined and expanded in the future.

Most strongly, there were clear calls to make Pharmacy First accessible to walk-in patients for all minor ailments.

With thanks to our roundtable attendees:

  • Shilpa Shah, chief executive of Community Pharmacy North East London;
  • Jonathan Cooper, owner of independent pharmacy group Cooper’s Chemist in the North East of England;
  • Harry McQuillan, chair at Numark and former chief executive of Community Pharmacy Scotland;
  • Sukhy Somal, Head of Community Pharmacy Clinical Services at The Black Country Integrated Care System;
  • Dr Sarah Jacques, part of the Doctors’ Association UK GP committee;
  • and Dr Selvaseelan Selvarajah, a GP partner in East London and director of Greenlight@GP, a pharmacist-GP employee-owned organisation.

Look out for our full roundtable report being published later today