Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help increase referrals from GP surgeries to community pharmacies under the Pharmacy First service.

In August 2024, approximately 71% of general practices (GPs) in England made at least one referral into the Pharmacy First Service. To help increase uptake, NHS England is working closely with the integrated care boards (ICBs), GP stakeholders, and the community pharmacy sector to improve referral pathways. Funding has been provided to ICBs to recruit Primary Care Network engagement leads who will be well placed to support GP teams to refer into the service.

Digital systems are being improved to integrate the referral process, and most pharmacies can now receive Pharmacy First referrals from GPs straight into their NHS England assured pharmacy IT systems. NHS England is continuing to promote the Pharmacy First service to increase public awareness and knowledge around accessing community pharmacy services. This will include a targeted public communications campaign with associated media materials.