Thirty-five per cent of Pharmacists’ Defence Association members in England have had Pharmacy First delivery targets placed on them by employers, the PDA has said.

The PDA said the latest findings from its rolling survey on the service roll out indicate that over a third have been asked to meet daily or weekly targets, while 94 per cent said their pharmacy has not hired any additional staff to cope with rising workloads.

Speaking to P3pharmacy, PDA director Paul Day said the organisation’s members have reported rises in patient demand, including a significant number of patients who are sent by their GPs “expecting to receive antibiotics” but whose conditions do not ultimately meet clinical pathway gateway criteria, which in some cases leads to pharmacies dealing with the “frustration expressed by those patients”.

Mr Day also raised concerns about large chains sending out emails listing branches that have completed high numbers of consultations, which he said risked creating “a kind of league-table like atmosphere”.

The PDA said employers should be mindful of the history of the now-decommissioned Medicines Use Review service which saw “unachievable targets” set on the basis of “commercial objectives rather than patient needs.”

In May this year, the minimum activity threshold required to qualify for a £1,000 fixed payment will rise from five clinical pathway consultations a month to 10 consultations. The service is currently capped at 3,000 consultations per month per pharmacy.

Earlier this week, NHS England published an update on its primary care access recovery plan in which it outlined plans to increase the number of patients using Pharmacy First and other recently launched services.

“We will continue to realise the potential of community pharmacies, growing the monthly patient volumes across all three services by March 2025 by at least 71,000 blood pressure check consultations, 25,800 oral contraception consultations and 320,000 Pharmacy First clinical pathways consultations,” said NHSE.