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Exclusive: All staff members at Tesco pharmacy branches are being set individual targets for delivering blood pressure checks and must be able to describe these targets on a “non-negotiable” basis, P3pharmacy has learned.

P3pharmacy understands that a regional pharmacy manager in the North West of England has been consistently raising the issue of targets for the hypertension case-finding service for some time and is now insisting that branch managers set targets for all staff, including pharmacy assistants. 

P3pharmacy has seen a ‘pharmacy services toolkit’ that was emailed by the regional manager to pharmacies on March 25 that states “every colleague” should be able to “describe their individual target” for the Community Pharmacy Hypertension Case-Finding Service and be able to provide evidence of “shop floor customer acquisition activity” when requested. 

The email describes this as a “non-negotiable” requirement, meaning that it should be “happening in every branch, always”. 

Some pharmacies in the area manager’s region have expressed concerns that the hypertension service targets assigned to stores and individuals are unrealistic, P3pharmacy understands. 

“It’s a clinical service – if I start harassing everyone I’ll have fewer customers,” one staff member commented.

A spokesperson for Tesco said the company’s pharmacies only provide services that are clinically appropriate for patients. 

In February, P3pharmacy revealed that an Asda area manager had sent messages to pharmacy branches encouraging them to set weekly targets for the hypertension case-finding service, prompting the supermarket chain to deny that this was official company policy. 

Commenting on the Tesco revelations, Alison Jones, policy director with the Pharmacists’ Defence Association, told P3pharmacy: “The PDA recently asked its members about pressures to meet targets around Pharmacy First and 73 per cent of respondents said that they have been put under pressure to undertake Pharmacy First consultations. 

“As a follow-up question, respondents were asked the source of the pressure. Almost 60 per cent said that pressure to meet targets came from area managers.

“It is unacceptable that pharmacists are put under pressure to achieve numbers of consultations to meet commercial goals, and we are increasingly aware that targets are being introduced around other services. 

“We continue to raise concerns with stakeholders around this and other issues, and it is one of the reasons why we believe that the PDA as representatives of the workforce, should be part of the discussions with commissioners of services.”