Pharmacy First

The Pharmacy First service, which commenced on 31st January 2024, has three integrated components:

Clinical Pathways: Pharmacists can assess and treat seven common conditions and supply certain Prescription Only Medicines (POMs) under Patient Group Directions (PGDs) where appropriate.
Urgent Repeat Medicine Supply: Pharmacists can provide urgent repeat prescriptions to patients referred by NHS 111 or other NHS services.
NHS Referrals for Minor Illness: Patients with minor illnesses can be referred from NHS 111, GP practices, or other NHS services for advice and treatment by a pharmacist.

Latest update

Updated clinical pathways, protocol and PGDs for Pharmacy First

From 1st October 2025, pharmacy owners should start using the updated Pharmacy First clinical pathways, protocol and Patient Group Directions (PGDs).

NHS England has confirmed this in their Primary Care Bulletin, after receiving confirmation that the necessary changes to the clinical IT systems will be made on schedule.

IT system suppliers are amending their existing systems to incorporate the updates to the service so that from 1st October 2025, the updated service can be provided in accordance with the updated service documentation.

NHS England has also now published on their website the final updated clinical pathways, protocol and PGDs, as well as an updated master PGD authorisation sheet, which pharmacists can choose to sign instead of having to sign each individual PGD.

View the final updated Pharmacy First service documents (to be used from 1st October 2025)

National Guidance and Resources

See Community Pharmacy England’s (CPE’s) webpage here.

Download the service specification and Patient Group Directions here.

Download the Master PGD and Protocol authorisation sheet here.

FAQ's

Visit CPE’s Pharmacy First service FAQ page here.

Local Resources

CPSY’s workplan aims to support contractors in improving the quality and delivery of their services through guidance materials, instructional videos, and other helpful tools.

As part of this workplan, CPSY also promotes advanced services to the public by providing a range of locally produced resources, including posters, social media content, and more (see links below).

Contractor Support

Pharmacy First Service – Clarification on Receiving Electronic GP Referrals via AccuMail

Quick Dose Knowledge Capsule

Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire (CPWY) has produced a series of short videos titled “Quick Dose: Knowledge Capsules.” These bite-sized videos are designed to deliver key insights in a clear and concise format, making learning fast and effective. CPWY has kindly given us permission to share links to these videos with our contractors.

Promoting the Service to the Public

Posters

Leaflets

In Pharmacy Promotions

Pharmacy First Service – Prescription bag
Pharmacy First OTC Prompt
Sore Throat OTC Prompt
Insect bite OTC Prompt
Sinusitis OTC Prompt
UTI OTC Prompt
‘The Pharmacist says’ – Children stickers – these can be purchased here

Social Media

Instagram/Facebook Reels

You can find our Facebook and Instagram pages via the links below. We’d really appreciate it if you could like and share our posts to help us raise awareness of pharmacy services among the public.

If you would like copies of any of our reels to share on your own social media accounts, please email us at info@cpsy.org.uk. We can provide them either as they are or as editable versions, so you can add your pharmacy logo if you wish.