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A report published today by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has said every pharmacy in England could have at least one prescribing pharmacist by 2031 but urged the Government to lay the groundwork to allow pharmacies to deliver prescribing services.

The NPA said reforms to the initial education and training of pharmacists (IETP), which will see newly qualified pharmacists become prescribers when joining the register from this September, will “accelerate pharmacist prescribing workforce growth substantially”. 

The NPA’s projections showed that without the reforms, it would take until 2034 for 75 per cent of community pharmacies to have a pharmacist prescriber and until 2038 for every pharmacy to have one. IETP reform, it said, “accelerates” that “considerably”, allowing 75 per cent of pharmacies to have a pharmacist prescriber by 2028–2029 and one in every pharmacy by 2030–2031. 

The NPA also estimated that 1,000 newly graduated community pharmacists qualifying from tomorrow will have the skills to prescribe for a range of conditions, “paving the way for the potential of more and more treatments to be available at high street pharmacies”.

However, it warned the opportunity for prescribing pharmacists to make a significant impact on public health will be lost unless services are commissioned “with sustainable payment models alongside clear clinical pathways, practical support and the infrastructure needed for safe routine delivery”.

Urging Labour to “use it or lose it”, the NPA said the 2026-27 community pharmacy contractual settlement, which introduced prescribing to Pharmacy First and the pharmacy contraception service, created “an important opportunity to turn this growing workforce into commissioned prescribing services”.

“(We need) clear governance arrangements to make sure all prescribing pharmacists are fully supported to practice safely, as well as funding and infrastructure to include facilitation of information sharing between pharmacies and GP practices,” the NPA said.

It added: “To make the most of this opportunity, groundwork is needed now so that pharmacies are ready to deliver prescribing services as the workforce grows. Infrastructure should be developed alongside the phased introduction, testing and monitoring of prescribing services. Building confidence among patients and other healthcare professionals will also be important.”

The NPA said 3,154 pharmacists in England have taken additional training to become prescribers and, addressing general practice’s concerns about the ability of pharmacists to diagnose, insisted pharmacists “only prescribe where clinically appropriate and will work in partnership to signpost patients to GPs where a condition requires it”.

A recent study commissioned by the NPA and produced by ThisCovery found nearly three in four patients were comfortable with pharmacists prescribing for a range of health conditions without them needing to see a GP. Nearly 90 per cent of patients supported pharmacists prescribing treatments for insect bites and 55 per cent said they were comfortable with pharmacists prescribing for “some” asthma symptoms.

The NPA chair Olivier Picard said: “Today is an historic day, with the potential of more prescribing services being available to patients in their pharmacy without the need to go to a GP.

“This is a golden opportunity to safely shift more care into the community and could be game changing for patients and the wider health system.”

Picard said it was “important” that any “developments come with funding and support so pharmacies can ensure they have the safeguards and infrastructure in place to support this development”.