Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 21
21
Accepted in Part
Paragraph: 112
Require Government to detail progress on Pharmacy First digital product rollout and interoperability.
Recommendation
When responding to this report, we ask that the Government sets out what progress has been made on rolling out the full digital product for the documentation of Pharmacy First consultations, including the percentage of community pharmacies that have fully functioning and interoperable read/write access to patient records.
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation to provide progress updates on Pharmacy First digital capabilities, detailing rollout percentages and timelines for electronic referrals and record updates. However, it explicitly rejects enabling full read/write access to patient records for community pharmacies due to NHS England policy.
Paragraph Reference:
112
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
Accept The full suite of digital capabilities for Pharmacy First is designed to make it easier for frontline staff to refer, consult, record outcomes, and report. NHS England policy is not to enable community pharmacies to have full read/write access to patient records. The priority is to ensure pharmacists have easy access to all the relevant heath information needed to support consultations, and to ensure that consultation outcomes can be sent back directly into practice workflows, for review as needed and seamless filing into the patient record. Progress on rolling out the enhanced digital capabilities is as follows: • Over 60% of general practice can send electronic Pharmacy First referrals, rising to 100% by end of March 2025 on current plans. 90% of community pharmacies, rising to 100% by the end of March 2025, can receive Pharmacy First referrals electronically from practices. • All community pharmacies can review additional heath information they need to support consultations by securely accessing the National Care Records System. NHS England is working with suppliers to surface key information directly in pharmacy clinical systems, saving time and improving workflows. • All community pharmacies can record consultation outcomes in their clinical systems. These are then automatically sent to: ○ NHS BSA to pay and reimburse pharmacists, monitor the service and feed into national reporting, including monitoring Antimicrobial resistance. ○ practices so patient records are updated, except for Blood Pressure Checks which will flow automatically shortly. Where practices have enabled it, these go straight into the GP clinical system workflow, otherwise a practice will receive them by email, alongside reports from other care settings. Work is ongoing with Integrated Care Boards to support practices to enable this capability.