Published: 10/07/24

Referrals into community pharmacy from other healthcare professionals are becoming more frequent as community pharmacy services become more well known. This may result in an increase in recommendations to patients from other healthcare professionals when referring them to the community pharmacy for care. Whilst it is important to acknowledge another healthcare professional’s knowledge and expertise, any recommendation or referral related to a supply of any medicine, including a POM via a PGD, does not supersede the community pharmacist’s need to undertake a full consultation and decide if a treatment is the appropriate clinical action. PGDs must still be followed fully by the community pharmacist undertaking the consultation to determine the correct clinical outcome for each patient.

When these situations present in the community pharmacy, the patient should be advised that to ensure they receive the most appropriate management for their symptoms a consultation must be undertaken by the pharmacist, who is the expert in medicines.

As NHS Pharmacy First Plus also continues to expand across the network, we would like to remind IPs that the use of PGDs (for conditions fitting the inclusion criteria) can continue to be used to manage workload.