Community Pharmacy Clinical Services Evaluation

What is happening?

NHS England has commissioned an independent evaluation of how the clinical services have been working; Included in the evaluation are:

• Hypertension Case Finding Service
• Pharmacy Contraception Service
• Discharge Medicines Service
• New Medicine Service
• Smoking Cessation Service
• Community Pharmacist Consultation Service
• Flu vaccinations  

Why is this evaluation taking place?

The evaluation will offer important information to help NHS England make decisions regarding clinical services for the future community pharmacy sector, and how it is best proposed that these services are commissioned. Your voice in this evaluation is essential so they can understand the experience of the community pharmacy workforce, and the successes and challenges they have faced in providing the current clinical services. The findings can be used to inform future developments.

Who is funding and conducting the evaluation?

NHS England has commissioned RAND Europe to conduct the independent evaluation. They are a not-for-profit policy research organisation based in Cambridge.

How will I be involved?

RAND Europe will reach out to a sample of community pharmacy contractors, community pharmacists and their teams and other stakeholders across England to ask them to participate in a 60-minute interview.  They will also ask that informational materials are put in the pharmacies to recruit patients for focus groups to better understand the patient experience and outcomes of clinical services. RAND Europe will ask pharmacies to allow a member of the evaluation team to conduct visits. As a thank you for your participation in an interview, you will receive a gift card for your time. For front line pharmacy professionals, remuneration is also available for you to hire locum staff to facilitate your participation in the interview and/or a site visit.

Where will the evaluation take place?

Interviews will take place by a telephone or video call, on a day and at a time that is convenient for you. With your permission, site visits will also occur in some of the pharmacies that participate in interviews, and the RAND Europe evaluation team will work with you to schedule 2 to 3 days that they could visit the pharmacy. These observations will allow them to better understand the context in which clinical services are provided, the key processes involved in offering the CPCF services, and to identify outcomes of importance to pharmacy staff and service users.

When will I be contacted?

In April and May 2024, the RAND Europe evaluation team will be reaching out via email to pharmacy contractors, including practising community pharmacy teams, to ask them to participate in the evaluation.