NHS England says funds for pilot scheme, spread over three years, will be offered to practices under greatest pressure

GP practices are being urged to bid for a share of £15m in financial incentives from the NHS to bring pharmacists into their surgeries.

A pilot scheme designed to reduce the impact of continuing shortages of family doctors, improve the management of patients’ long-term conditions and reduce medication errors will start later this year.

The initiative represents a victory for primary care campaigners who have said the move will also cut waste in the system, both by reducing the enormous medicines bill and improving patients’ transfers between GPs, hospitals and social care.

They have convinced Simon Stevens, the NHS’s chief executive in England, that the move will reduce pressure on GPs and offer new opportunities for a glut of newly qualified pharmacists, whose training is shorter than that of doctors.

Only a handful of surgeries have on-site pharmacists at present and both the NHS Alliance and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society have been lobbying heavily for far more.



NHS England said the funding, spread over three years, would be offered to the surgeries under greatest pressure. These would directly employ the new staff.

Stevens said: “This has the potential to be a win-win-win for patients, their GPs and for pharmacists. Tapping into the skills of clinical pharmacists should help expand care and relieve some of the pressure that GPs are clearly under. This isn’t a silver bullet but it is a practical and constructive contribution to the wider challenge.”

Dr Maureen Baker, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said: “GPs are struggling to cope with unprecedented workloads and patients in some parts of the country are having to wait weeks for a GP appointment. Yet we have a ‘hidden army’ of highly trained pharmacists who could provide a solution.

“They will not be substitutes for GPs, but will work closely with us as part of the practice team to resolve day-to-day medicine issues, particularly for patients with long-term conditions who are taking a number of different medications. This has the potential to have a major impact on patient care and safety, as well as reducing waiting times for GP appointments.”

David Branford, former chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society English board, said: “In time I hope pharmacists will be working in every GP practice in the country.”

The money will support 60% of the costs of pharmacists’ pay for the first 12 months of employment, 40% for the second 12 months and 20% for the third.