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Almost two-thirds (60%) of consultations delivered under NHS England’s ‘Independent prescribing in community pharmacy pathfinder programme’ have been for minor ailments, Wasim Baqir, head of pharmacy integration at NHS England, has said.
Presenting data at the Pharmacy Show, held in Birmingham on 12 and 13 October 2025, Baqir revealed that a further 20% of consultations delivered under the programme were related to long-term conditions, 10% were for prescription management and a further 10% were related to medicines optimisation.
Baqir also revealed that 40,049 consultations had been carried out by 180 community pharmacy pathfinder sites operating around England by the end of July 2025,.
Of those consultations, he said more than half (59%) resulted in a prescribing activity — such as stopping, starting or changing a medication — that otherwise would have had to be carried out by a GP practice.
Across all the pathfinder sites in England, one in five instances of prescribing through the pathfinder sites are carried out in the most deprived areas.
Baqir suggested that a population health model could help target prescribing in areas with the most need.
“There are parts of England that have got really high deprivation, that can’t access services, and we’ve got lots of pharmacies there,” he said.
Data shared by Baqir showed that across all the pathfinder sites in England, a total of 19,835 items have so far been prescribed, across all main BNF chapters.
In addition, around 16,000 new medicines have been prescribed, 5,000 medications changed and 1,000 medicines stopped, he said.
And just 0.45% of prescriptions were for low-value medicines, which Baqir said showed that community pharmacy “can be trusted with a prescription pad”.
There was still work to be done to support pharmacist prescribers with long-term conditions management and that this could be developed as part of neighbourhood health services, as outlined in the NHS ten-year plan, he noted.
In September 2025, the Department of Health and Social Care announced the first 43 neighbourhood health service sites, which it said would target “working class areas with lowest life expectancy and longest waits”, as well as focus on long-term health conditions.
“We’re keen that all of those 43 neighbourhood pilot sites have some sort of pharmacy representation in them,” Baqir said.
He also acknowledged that workforce was “something we need to think about”, noting that around half the pathfinder sites had a second prescribing pharmacist working as part of the service and some had pharmacy technician support.
“We hear the sector, we hear you that the funding must support future services,” Baqir added.
