Pharmacy: Prescriptions
(asked on 2nd May 2024) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the number and proportion of prescriptions that were written by pharmacists in each of the last five years.
The National Health Service does not currently commission prescribing services from community pharmacists but pharmacists working in other NHS settings, including general practices, can prescribe on the NHS.
The following table show the total number of items prescribed, the number of items prescribed by a pharmacist, and the percentage this equates to in terms of overall prescribing in England, in each of the last five years:
Year | Total number of items | Items prescribed by a pharmacist | Percentage of items prescribed by a pharmacist |
2019 | 1,118,845,270 | 22,089,868 | 1.97% |
2020 | 1,122,769,640 | 30,824,967 | 2.75% |
2021 | 1,128,633,578 | 36,145,631 | 3.20% |
2022 | 1,162,723,444 | 40,701,768 | 3.50% |
2023 | 1,203,435,207 | 45,713,123 | 3.80% |
Source: NHS Business Services Authority
The number of pharmacists that are independent prescribers is increasing. From 2026 all newly qualified pharmacists will be prescribers and we are upskilling the current workforce. NHS England are piloting services with varying models to evaluate how this could work in future clinical services in community pharmacy. In future, prescribing in community pharmacy has the potential to unlock more clinical services in community pharmacy, taking further pressure off general practice.