NHS England to relaunch Pharmacy First campaign on Monday

CPE calls for a longer-term Pharmacy First campaign to allow community pharmacies maximise their allocated funding 

As NHS England prepares to relaunch its Pharmacy First public-facing campaign on Monday, 11 November, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has highlighted the need for a sustained, large-scale effort to maximize the service's impact.

Minor updates have been made to the original campaign materials from earlier this year, including additional information on the age criteria for the clinical pathways.

Community pharmacies are informed that campaign materials are available on the Department of Health and Social Care’s Campaign Resource Centre website. These include a campaign toolkit, social media assets, and posters.

These materials can be used ahead of the official launch date.

CPE chief executive Janet Morrison said: “It’s good that we are finally seeing the resumption of the NHS Pharmacy First marketing campaign, alongside new resources to help with promotion, as we head into winter.

“But we need this to be part of a much bigger, ongoing public awareness campaign to ensure the service has maximum impact.”

She stresses that a long-term campaign is essential to increase patient referrals from GP practices and NHS 111.

“NHS England must continue to effectively advertise the service to the public on a regular basis and to increase referral rates from general practices and NHS 111.

“A much longer-term campaign is a key way to support patients and the public to receive care closer to home via Pharmacy First; to help improve access to general practice; and to allow community pharmacies to maximise the amount of allocated funding that they can earn from this important service,” she added.

The CPE have also made a range of promotional materials available on their Pharmacy First page, under the ‘Promoting the service to the public’ section.