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The government and NHS England must seize a landmark opportunity to harness pharmacist prescribing by commissioning and funding prescribing services across community pharmacies in England, says a new report from the Company Chemists’ Association.

With all newly registered pharmacists qualifying as independent prescribers (IPs) from September, the NHS is being offered a new and incremental capability within the third largest healthcare profession, the report argues.

An IP community pharmacy workforce will be able to meet the needs of many more patients, particularly in urgent care. Pharmacy First relies on the use of patient group directions which set out very defined patient criteria and pathways. IP pharmacists will be able to prescribe around any PGD restrictions and so will be better able to meet patient needs.

But at present there are almost no NHS funded pathways for community pharmacists to prescribe for patients in England. Recent pilots are approaching the end without any certainty of future commissioning.

“The transition to a new IP workforce is essential to the future of NHS primary care, but to enable this there is a need for cultural change, new training, and critically, appropriately funded commissioning,” says the CCA report: Introducing Independent Prescribing to Community Pharmacies in England.

The Pharmacy First service has proved to be “hugely successful”, says the report. Between April 2024 and March 2025, 92 per cent of community pharmacies provided over 2.5 million consultations.

Commissioning independent prescribing could increase Pharmacy First consultations from around nine million a year to as many as 40 million annually, the report suggests, as well as enabling pharmacists to treat a wider range of conditions without unnecessary GP referrals.

New conditions could headaches, including migraine; back pain; respiratory tract infections; eye infections such as conjunctivitis, and skin conditions such as acne, eczema and psoriasis.

Adding independent prescribing to Pharmacy First would also provide a clear route to introduce the new prescribing capabilities into the community pharmacy workforce at scale, the report says.

It also warns that failing to commission independent prescribing at scale could worsen existing workforce pressures in community pharmacy. Despite rising demand, workforce capacity in the sector has fallen since 2021. There has been a:

• 7% decrease in full-time equivalent pharmacists
• 32% reduction in pharmacy technicians
• 1% decrease in pharmacy support staff.

Without sufficient NHS-funded opportunities to prescribe, community pharmacy could become a less attractive sector for pharmacy professionals.

The report also argues that independent prescribing will also positively impact on other members of the pharmacy team. Legislation changes currently being enacted will change how the assembly and supply of medicines is ‘supervised’ by pharmacists. The intended changes will allow pharmacy technicians to take on more responsibility for the dispensing process.

If there was a significant volume of new clinical workload commissioned by the NHS for pharmacists to deliver, pharmacy businesses would be able to diversify their team structures and increase their capacity.

“Commissioning and funding independent prescribing services clearly offers a route to change pharmacy practice and improve patient outcomes,” the report says.

Introducing Independent Prescribing to Community Pharmacies in England was developed as collaborative working project between the CCA, NPA, Gen X Media (Pharmacy in Practice) and Pfizer UK.

National Pharmacy Association chief executive Henry Gregg  said: "This is a golden opportunity that the government cannot allow to go to waste.

Prescribing absolutely cannot come at the expense of fully funding pharmacies for their dispensing work, but without improved planning there is a growing risk that newly qualified pharmacist prescribers will leave community pharmacy for hospitals or GP practices.

Prescribers in community pharmacy have enormous potential to enable care closer to home, supporting implementation of the 10 Year Health Plan and the shift from hospital to community care.”