News | Digital pharmacy

News

NHS App to include pharmacy finder

The Department of Health and Social Care said the updated NHS App will include an AI tool to help patients find their nearest pharmacy, as well as best-rated providers of other clinical services.…

Published: 8 July 2025

News

Integrated digital patient care records to be created following law change

The Scottish Parliament has backed an amendment to the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill, which states that all patients in Scotland must have a digital care record, to enable “secure and efficient sharing of data between health care and social services”.…

Published: 11 June 2025

News

Ban on new distance-selling pharmacies will result in ‘even playing field’ for contractors, says government

Legislative changes coming into force later in June 2025 will also prohibit distance-selling pharmacies from providing remote services in person on their premises.…

Published: 5 June 2025

News

Prescription tracking app to be used by more than 5,000 pharmacies within a year, says NHS England

NHS England said the tracking feature will reduce how long pharmacists spend on the phone and give them more time to offer advice to patients.…

Published: 27 May 2025

News

Patients to be able to nominate a pharmacy on NHS App more easily from July 2025

Rahul Singal, chief pharmacy and medicines information officer at NHS England, announced at the Clinical Pharmacy Congress 2025 that several other prescription-based user features would be introduced to the NHS App by early 2026.…

Published: 13 May 2025

News

Hub-and-spoke dispensing expansion set to begin in October 2025

Hub-and-spoke dispensing between different legal entities will be permitted from 1 October 2025 under draft amendments to the Human Medicines Regulations 2012.…

Published: 1 May 2025

News

Homecare medicines services need electronic prescribing and access to records, report urges

The General Pharmaceutical Council has suggested that UK national health organisations should ensure that homecare pharmacy teams have the same access to clinical systems as other parts of patients’ care team.…

Published: 22 April 2025

News

Online pharmacies more than twice as likely to fail regulatory standards, finds analysis

Exclusive: An analysis conducted by The Pharmaceutical Journal has found that between April 2024 and January 2025, 10% of distance-selling pharmacies failed General Pharmaceutical Council inspections compared with 5% of high street pharmacies.…

Published: 9 April 2025

Feature

The big online pharmacy clampdown

Distance-selling pharmacies continue to fail inspections at a higher rate than their bricks-and-mortar counterparts. Will the General Pharmaceutical Council’s latest guidance successfully clamp down on rogue operators, or is more action needed?…

Published: 9 April 2025

News

GPs raise confidentiality and safety concerns about online prescribing of weight-loss drugs

The Medical Defence Union has advised GPs to ensure that pharmacies review online records with patients to keep in line with prescribing guidelines.…

Published: 6 February 2025