Advanced

PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Pharmacy: Prescriptions (5 December 2023)

Question Asked

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of prescriptions were written by pharmacists in the financial year 2022-23.

Asked by:
Karin Smyth (Labour)

Answer

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 shows the total number of items prescribed in England and the number of items prescribed by pharmacists in 2022:

Year

Total items prescribed in England

Items prescribed by pharmacists

Percentage of total items prescribed by pharmacists

2022

1,162,723,444

40,701,768

3.50

Source: NHS Business Services Authority

We are working on increasing the number of pharmacist prescribers and from 2026 all newly graduated pharmacists will have a prescribing qualification. This year NHS England will pilot how NHS prescribing could work in community pharmacy. Pharmacists in other setting including general practice and hospital already prescribe.


Answered by:
Andrea Leadsom (Conservative)
15 January 2024

Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.