The Company Chemists’ Association has said 81 per cent of its members provided at least one Pharmacy First consultation during the opening week of the service.

The CCA said data it collected following “a blackbox exercise with its members via PharmOutcomes” also showed 84 per cent of consultations were self-referral or walk-in and 16 per cent were from NHS111 and GP surgeries.

Almost a third of consultations were for sore throats, followed by uncomplicated UTIs (26 per cent) and earache/acute otitis media (17 per cent).

The CCA said the results “demonstrate strong public awareness of the service ahead of the launch of the NHS’ own marketing campaign from 19th February until the end of March 2024.” It also said the data showed patients accessed Pharmacy First “across the entire week, including weekends, and outside of typical working hours.”

When asked how many pharmacies the 81 per cent equated to, the CCA told Independent Community Pharmacist that “as per the terms of the data collection from members, and in line with our understanding of competition law,” it is “not permitted to publicly share the exact number of pharmacies from which this data comes from.”

CCA chief executive Malcolm Harrison said: “Our members have worked tremendously hard to gear up for Pharmacy First and the initial results are testament to their efforts and the hard work of pharmacy teams on the ground.

“The CCA will continue to collect and analyse members’ data to help build the case for the expansion of Pharmacy First to cover further common conditions. We believe an ambitious and fully funded Pharmacy First service could free up 30m+ GP appointments per year.”