NHS priorities

Whether it’s to prepare for the next Pharmacy Quality Scheme deadline, or to increase your confidence in helping people with a learning disability, this section provides topic-specific pages that link to current NHS priorities. This section will support you in keeping your knowledge and skills up to date in order to provide high-quality pharmacy services and be service-ready.

Clinical pharmacy

Our clinical portfolio is expanding on a frequent basis, helping you to advance your knowledge and skills and deliver medicines optimisation in practice for all sectors of pharmacy. From two new focal points a year to our small group learning for hospital pharmacists – Optimise – this section focuses on clinical pharmacy, diseases and therapeutics.

Public health

The public health agenda is embedded in pharmacy, yet topics such as emergency contraception or stop smoking support are as prevalent as ever. As well as our public health workshops, use this section to access a wide range of resources to assure and maintain your competence, all underpinned by the Declaration of Competence system.

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e-learning

Urgent care: the role of community pharmacy and the NHS Pharmacy First service


  • Released: 01/2024
  • Reviewed: 12/2024
  • Study time: 2h:0m

This programme enables community pharmacy professionals and their teams to identify how to deliver the NHS Pharmacy First service to high standards of practice and how to integrate into the multidisciplinary team to support urgent care. It provides facts about the referral process between NHS 111 and the NHS Pharmacy First service. It also supports community pharmacy professionals and their teams to ensure people have a positive journey through the system when they need an urgent supply of a medicine and/or support in managing a low-acuity (minor) illness or common condition.

Learning outcomes

On completion of all aspects of this learning programme you should be able to:

  • summarise the context for reforms to urgent and emergency care in the NHS
  • explain the role of community pharmacy in supporting urgent care pathways in the NHS that contribute to better patient experiences and outcomes
  • access resources to help you deliver the NHS Pharmacy First service effectively to patients and other healthcare providers
  • plan how your pharmacy team will support the delivery of the NHS Pharmacy First service in response to referrals from urgent and emergency care (UEC) settings
  • reflect on and identify the skills that you need to develop or enhance to deliver high-quality, person-centred clinical assessments of patients accessing the pharmacy.

How to use this programme

You can access this e-learning programme using a web browser on any device. You will need to be connected to the internet while you work through it.

Learning intended for

  • Pharmacists
  • Pharmacy technicians
  • Trainee pharmacists