Pharmacy First Evaluation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Pharmacy First Evaluation: Impact on Healthcare Usage, Antimicrobial use and Safety
IRAS ID
355949
Contact name
Kimberley Sonnex
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Nottingham
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 7 months, 30 days
Research summary
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a significant backlog in hospital care, contributing to an increased demand for GP appointments. In response, under the Government’s NHS Primary Care Recovery Plan, NHS England (NHSE) commissioned the Pharmacy First (PF) service, launched in February 2024. Part of Pharmacy first is a clinical pathways service to assess and manage seven common conditions, including the supply of prescription only medicines where appropriate, after consultation with a community pharmacist.
The service aims to enable patients to access care in quicker and more convenient ways, which aims to relieve some of the pressures on both general practices and hospitals.
We will assess what effect the introduction of the service has had on GP appointment and hospital use associated with each of the seven conditions. We will look how these changed alongside the increase in recorded PF consultations, and rates of PF in England. We will also look at how changes in the number of consultations at general practices and hospitals was affected by deprivation, ethnicity, age, gender, geographical region, and the patient's number of other health conditions.The treatment of conditions included in Pharmacy First utilises antimicrobial medications; there is concern that the new service could increase the supply of these medications and lead to resistance. We will evaluate any change in the number of prescriptions for these antimicrobials after the introduction of the service.
Finally, the safety of the Pharmacy First service will also be evaluated. We will evaluate if patients are having adverse effects, such as hospitalisation for the conditions being treated, after the introduction of the Pharmacy First service
REC name
Wales REC 3
REC reference
25/WA/0167
Date of REC Opinion
28 May 2025
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion