Exclusive: Data released under the Freedom of Information Act reveals how much money NHS England has spent on promoting Pharmacy First to the public – a contentious issue in recent months amid accusations the health service is failing to invest in the public awareness needed to make the service a success. 

NHSE’s response to P3pharmacy’s FOI request reveals that as of the start of September, £2,551,000 had been spent on a national advertising campaign informing patients of the service, which launched on January 31 this year. 

Much of this will have been spent on a series of pharmacy-related adverts titled ‘The Place to Go,’ which ran as part of the 2023-24 ‘Help Us, Help You’ winter health campaign. 

Sector negotiator Community Pharmacy England has blasted NHSE over what CPE describes as a “one-off campaign” rather than “continuous” advertising, as pharmacies across England struggle to meet the number of clinical pathway consultations needed to trigger monthly activity payments.

NHSE told P3pharmacy that a total of £22,025,000 had been spent on the ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaign “which delivered eight phases of the campaign including cancer barriers, lung cancer symptoms and bowel cancer screening, heart attack, NHS Talking Therapies, NHS 111 and pharmacy”. This suggests Pharmacy First was allocated 11.6 per cent of the total moneys spent on the winter awareness campaign.

NHSE also revealed that the £2.55m spend on Pharmacy First adverts included £537,000 allotted to leading agency M&C Saatchi for “creative strategy development, creative audience research, audio visual advertisements for video on demand and online video channels; a suite of social media adverts; out of home (posters); and digital display adverts”.

Other partners included PR agency Freuds, on whom £190,000 was spent for “depth messaging” in national, regional and consumer press. MMC received £103,000 for “specialist outreach” to multicultural audiences through the use of “audience specific spokespeople” in community groups, social media and broadcast and print media.  

At the lower end of the media spend, creative agency 23red received £75,000 for securing partnerships with organisations to “amplify message delivery,” including pharmacy chains and GP surgeries, while BDS Communications received £20,000 for facilitating “specialist outreach to disabled and underrepresented groups,” including the development of British Sign Language materials.

Commenting on these revelations, CPE chief Janet Morrison told P3pharmacy: “It is beyond disappointing that NHS England has so far failed to give sufficient backing to the marketing of the Pharmacy First service. As a flagship new service intended to support the NHS recovery from the pandemic and improve patient access, we expected so much more from their marketing efforts.

“Community pharmacies have done an amazing job providing Pharmacy First, but the initial lacklustre promotional campaign fell a long way short of the sector’s efforts. 

“We have made our views clear to NHS England and DHSC, that they need to keep their side of the bargain and scale up advertising and public awareness and drive referrals from GPs and other NHS providers to Pharmacy First. As we head into winter, public awareness of the service will be vital to ensure it has the maximum impact.”