Community pharmacy services

Community pharmacy funding boosted by £617m in two-year contract

Community Pharmacy England has announced that a £193m write-off of historic margin overspend has also been agreed with the government.…

Pharmacy and GP contracts should ‘encourage collaboration’, says think tank report

A report published by The King’s Fund has urged that national contracts for general practice and community pharmacy should be “coherent and complementary” in order to move care into the community.…

‘Urgent’ need for community pharmacy to play a role in medicines homecare services, review says

The independent review, commissioned by the chief pharmaceutical officer for Scotland, also said that key performance indicators for medicines homecare are “widely viewed as not fit for purpose”.…

Medicines pricing system creating ‘false economy’ that drives shortages, says CCA report

A report published by the Company Chemists’ Association found that the number of price concessions granted for generic medicines increased by over 740% from 2015 to 2024.…

Pharmacy involvement absent from almost half of TB services in England, report finds

The report, authored by the Getting It Right First Time projects team at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, pointed out that pharmacy was absent in 43% of TB services.…

Two-thirds of cholesterol point-of-care tests fail to meet standards, researchers warn

Authors of a literature review found that only two out of six point-of-care tests “mostly met” necessary standards for use in the NHS Health Check programme.…

Gail Caldwell receives RPS Charter Award

The director of pharmacy at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde was given the award for being a “driving force” behind improvements to pharmacy service and workforce development in Scotland.…

Pharmacy First budget ‘shockingly underspent’ in first half of financial year

In response to a written question to the Department of Health and Social Care, health minister Stephen Kinnock revealed that, as of November 2024, only £82m out of the £645m community pharmacy clinical services budget had been spent in 2024/2025.…

Only 4% of pharmacies offering smoking cessation service claimed payment in three months

Exclusive: Of the 4,721 pharmacies registered to provide the service, 203 claimed payment for a consultation between July and September 2024.…

Fewer people reporting problems obtaining prescriptions in England, show ONS data

Survey results have revealed that 88.1% of patients said they experienced no issues accessing medicines from their pharmacy in January 2025, compared with 79.9% in August 2024.…