Community Pharmacy England chief executive Janet Morrison has welcomed NHS England’s relaunch today (November 11) of the Pharmacy First public-facing promotional activity but cautioned a “much bigger, ongoing public awareness campaign” is needed if the service is to be maximised during winter.

There was no news on the relaunch of the publicity on NHE England’s website by early this afternoon, but CPE said “minor revisions have been made to the original campaign materials”. 

That, CPE said, included additional information on the age criteria for the clinical pathways.

Independent Community Pharmacist has asked NHSE for more details about the campaign relaunch.

CPE also said campaign materials were available on the Department of Health and Social Care’s campaign resource centre website, including a campaign toolkit, social assets and posters.

“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,” Morrison said.

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

Morrison (pictured) urged NHSE to “continue to effectively advertise the service to the public on a regular basis and increase referral rates from general practices and NHS 111”.

Pharmacists have told ICP that some GPs are not referring to them, making it more difficult to hit Pharmacy First thresholds.

Vinod Patel from Bradshaw Street Pharmacy in Wigan said: “We have only managed to achieve the target number three times since the service started. We have no hope of hitting the new targets, even the lower thresholds.

“I have proactively engaged with our local surgeries to encourage the use of the service but we’re having no success as the GPs are not interested in engaging. The few engagements we have achieved are walk-in patients.”

The National Pharmacy Association this month said a third of the public is still “unaware” of Pharmacy First.

Morrison insisted “a much longer-term campaign is a key way to support patients and the public to receive care closer to home via Pharmacy First.

“(That will) help improve access to general practice and allow community pharmacies to maximise the amount of allocated funding that they can earn from this important service,” she said.

Company Chemists' Association chief executive Malcolm Harrison said: “We welcome the relaunch of the advertising campaign. However, we are concerned that the last one had a limited impact. Unless there is a step-change in the volume of promotional activity, we can only expect a similar outcome.

"Patient awareness, together with GP referrals, remain low. It’s clear that any marketing of the service needs to be more robust and repeat the ‘Pharmacy First’ mantra. We hope to support NHSE to shape future Pharmacy First advertising campaigns."