Local GP groups in England have voted “unanimously” in favour of demanding an end to community pharmacy hypertension checks on the basis that it “generates more work” for surgeries.

At the British Medical Association's Local Medical Committee (LMC) conference in London on Friday, a motion from Devon LMC was passed criticising the “wastefulness” of the case-finding service and demanding that the money saved after hypothetically scrapping the service be “put into pharmacy dispensing fees”.

The Community Pharmacy Hypertension Case-finding Adanced Service launched on October 1, 2021. In July 2024, a total of 492,680 blood pressure readings were taken, and 32,592 patients fitted with ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) devices. 

Pharmacies receive £15 for every reading carried out within the terms of the service and £45 for every patient who receives ABPM. 

The Devon LMC motion read in full: “That conference recognises the necessity of community pharmacy and demands that: 

“(i) NHS England funds their core work of dispensing appropriately.

“(ii) Their survival not be made contingent upon doing work traditionally and contractually the remit of general practice

“(iii) Pharmacy First schemes follow guidelines on prescribing and ensure appropriate antibiotic stewardship.

“(iv) The wastefulness of paying a seventh of a practice’s GMS fee per patient for a blood pressure check that then generates more work for the practice be terminated with immediate effect and the money put into pharmacy dispensing fees. 

“(v) The increasing tendency of NHSE to pit general practice and community pharmacy against each other in zero-sum games for scant funding be ended.” 

It is unclear how the BMA will pursue its new policy around pharmacy services, or whether organisations like Community Pharmacy England will seek to counter it. Both organisations have been approached for comment, as has the commissioner NHS England.

The Independent Pharmacies Association commented: “It is deeply regrettable and massively disappointing that the BMA has passed a motion that seems in favour of reducing patient access to vital healthcare and pharmacy services.

“The solution to the NHS crisis lies in the Government adopting a joined-up approach to funding and planning primary care, with community pharmacy and GPs at its heart working collaboratively.

“Instead, we have a situation where GPs are being pitted against pharmacies, ultimately leaving patients to lose out. 

“Hypertension is a ticking time bomb. Any suggestion of reducing patient access and services goes against everything our members stand for.”