Chaired by Shilpa Shah, chief executive of Community Pharmacy North-East London, the session brought together leaders from NHSE, ICBs, primary care networks, academia and community pharmacy. They engaged in a genuine and practical discussion about the steps needed to implement IP on a larger scale. The premise was no longer to demonstrate pharmacists' ability; that point, participants suggested, has been made. The task now is to ensure the system keeps pace with professional readiness.
Why this report was needed and timely
The NHS is approaching the 2026 deadline when all newly registered pharmacists will qualify as independent prescribers, creating a rapid expansion of prescribing capacity. However, the system has not fully kept pace. Gaps in commissioning, supervision and integration risk leaving this new capability under-used at a time when primary care pressures continue to escalate. This report arrives at a moment when practical guidance is essential to ensure that IP becomes a meaningful part of primary care rather than a qualification without home.
Over 90 minutes, participants focused on one primary objective: to move IP from the margins of community pharmacy practice into the mainstream delivery of NHS primary care. This recognition includes the potential IP has, but also the structural and operational steps necessary to realise it. The conversation highlighted the profession is ready to move forward. The challenge currently lies in ensuring the system keeps pace.
Delegates stressed that pharmacy's prescribing capability must be treated as part of a national workforce strategy, essential to the coming decade of NHS transformation. Pharmacy cannot remain an optional add-on to primary care; it must be treated as a clinical partner with defined roles and the authority to deliver at scale. This shift calls for shared digital systems and coherent governance frameworks that recognise pharmacists' expertise.
Crucially, participants located this agenda within the ambitions of the NHS 10-Year Health Plan: the shift from treatment to prevention, from acute to community-based care and from analogue to digital. IP in community pharmacy was framed as a practical route to deliver on all three transitions bringing care closer to home, enabling earlier intervention and ensuring that pharmacists can safely prescribe using interoperable clinical records and decision-support tools.
A recurrent topic throughout the discussion was progress will depend on sustained commitment across three main areas: commissioning, supervision and integration. This includes protected IP roles, dedicated learning time and formal support for designated prescribing practitioners. Without these, trained pharmacists lack the proper means to practise effectively. One participant noted: ‘We've trained hundreds of prescribers, but without funded roles, these qualifications sit idle.'
Delegates also stressed the UK does not need to start from scratch. Evidence from Scotland, New Zealand, Australia and Canada shows a consistent pattern: IP flourishes where there is national, ring-fenced funding for prescribing roles, regional supervision hubs and structured designated prescribing practitioner support, strategic investment in pharmacy technicians and full access to shared digital records. The roundtable drew on these models to highlight the levers now available to system leaders in England commissioning frameworks, workforce strategies and governance arrangements that can be adapted rather than invented.
Collaboration, delegates agreed, also plays a critical role. While there are strong partnerships between general practice and community pharmacy in some areas, inconsistencies remain in others. Poor communication can hinder patients' ability to move smoothly between services, making even simple referrals challenging. The need for shared governance and full access to clinical records, along with a change in how pharmacists are viewed as partners, is vital for the success of IP.
Perhaps one of the most revealing points of the discussion concerned actors rarely featured in public debate: pharmacy technicians. They are the foundation upon which prescribing capacity rests. Investing in pharmacy technician training and clear career development is a precondition for sustainable reform. Strengthening this workforce will prevent pharmacists from being absorbed by purely operational tasks and allow them more time to focus on clinical evaluations, prescribing, and follow-up.
Ultimately, the roundtable reinforced IP as a central step in creating a modern, prevention-focused health system. Pharmacists are already equipped with the necessary skills to deliver high-quality clinical care. The public is accustomed to immediate access to pharmacies and, increasingly, expects to find meaningful clinical support there. General practice continues to face long waits, rising demand and workforce shortages; structures and investments are required to realise IP's full potential to rebalance the system.
Through its ongoing series of roundtables and reports, the Global Policy Network is committed to ensuring these insights translate into meaningful actions supporting policymakers, commissioners and professional leaders to move IP from the edges of practice into the heart of NHS primary care.
To read the whole report and access future discussions, please visit and register at: https://www.globalpolicynetwork.com/
