About the NHS Pharmacy First Service
The new Pharmacy First service, launched 31 January 2024, incorporates and builds on the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) (minor illness and urgent medicines supply elements). The NHS CPCS was launched nationally to facilitate patients having a same day appointment with a community pharmacist for minor illness, or an urgent supply of a regular medicine, improving access to services and providing more convenient treatment closer to patients’ homes.
The Pharmacy First service enables community pharmacies to complete episodes of care for 7 common conditions following defined clinical pathways. Find out more about the Pharmacy First service.
This session explains the Pharmacy First service which accepts referrals from NHS 111. This elearning will provide guidance to staff in NHS 111 and Integrated Urgent Care (IUC) services about the service, as well as benefits to patients and the NHS when referred to the service.
Community pharmacists are part of the NHS family. The traditional role of the community pharmacist as the healthcare professional who dispenses prescriptions has changed. In recent years community pharmacists have been developing clinical services in addition to dispensing of medication which enables better integration and team working with the rest of the NHS. This supports the principle of ‘right healthcare professional, at the right time at the right place’.
Over 10,500 pharmacies are signed-up to deliver the service and over 12,000 patients a week are being referred for a 1 to 1 consultation with a specially trained pharmacist following a call to NHS 111, or after contacting their GP. The pharmacist will assess the patient’s clinical needs and provide expert advice and care relating to their current problem. A remote consultation may be offered and agreed with the patient as appropriate to need, or escalated to their GP or other health service, if additional diagnosis or treatment is needed.
9 out of 10 referred patients are successfully helped by the pharmacist without needing escalation onto another service.
Audiences
NHS 111 call handlers and Integrated Urgent Care Clinical Assessment Service (IUC CAS) staff.
More information
You can find further information about Pharmacy First online on the NHS England website here: NHS England » Pharmacy First
Users can submit feedback on the resource here: Submit a ticket : Learning Hub Support Portal
Acknowledgement
This content has been developed by the Primary Care and Community Services team in NHS England.
Meet the team
- Marnie Greenrod, TEL Education Content Programme Manager, NHS England
- Paul Tingle, TEL Education Content Senior Project Manager, NHS England
- Roger Ellison, TEL Education Content Learning Designer, NHS England
- Evelyn Lindsay, TEL Education Content Graphic Designer, NHS England
- Annie Sayer, Senior Policy Manager, Community Pharmacy Transformation and Commissioning, Primary Care and Community Services
- Pallavi Dawda, Head of Delivery, Clinical Strategy, Community Pharmacy, Primary Care and Community Services
- Rob Hebdon, Senior Policy Lead, Primary Care and Community Services
How to Access
In order to access any elfh programme, you will need an elfh account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below.
To view the NHS Pharmacy First for IUC Health Advisors and Clinicians programme, select the View button below. If you already have an elfh account, you will also be able to login and access the resources within the programme .
If you already have an account with elfh, then you can enrol on to the NHS Pharmacy First for IUC Health Advisors and Clinicians programme by logging in to the elfh Hub, selecting My Account > Enrolment and selecting the programme. You can then access the programme immediately in the My e-Learning section.
NHS healthcare staff in England – ESR
The NHS Pharmacy First for IUC Health Advisors and Clinicians programme is also available to NHS healthcare staff via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). Accessing this e-learning via ESR means that your completions will transfer with you throughout your NHS career.
Further details are available here.
Not an NHS organisation?
If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access elfh Hub, you may be able to access the service by creating an OpenAthens account.
To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.
Registering large numbers of users
If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the NHS Pharmacy First for IUC Health Advisors and Clinicians programme, please contact elfh directly.
Organisations wishing to use their own LMS
For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.
More information
Please select the following link for more information on how to use the elfh Hub.
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Select the following link for more information about CPD points.