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Pharmacy First has been a key vehicle in 'left shift' efforts, writes Neil Scobie

In July, Andy Burnham appointed Yvette Cooper as his new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Cooper was quick to re-commit to the Starmer Government’s health reforms, so now is a timely moment to reflect on how the NHS ten-year plan is delivering a year on from its launch.

A look at progress so far

Pharmacy First has continued to be a key vehicle for shifting care from GPs to community pharmacy. Since launching in January 2024, the service recorded 6,415,766 claimed consultations up to April 2026, with 74.8 per cent resulting in a medicine being supplied.

Contraception and vaccination services are also scaling; 95.8 per cent of pharmacies had opted into the expanded contraception service by March 2026, with nearly 305,000 free morning-after pill doses were supplied via pharmacies from October 2025 to March 2026.

This has led to over 1.2 million consultations in total supporting women continuing the pill, plus 192,000 consultations supporting women starting the pill since Feb 2024. Within four weeks of launch in July 2026, 130,000+ MenB vaccine appointments were also booked across 8,200+ pharmacies.

Keep the pace up

Sustaining this momentum is important with organisations such as Alphega continuing to offer support as a practical enabler of continued progress.

Pharmacists and technicians need structured training to build confidence delivering these services. Additionally, owners can benefit from their Business Mentors helping them to navigate the transition of translating national policy into workable local plan.

Using Alphega ready-made templates and tools, such as standard operating procedures, are particularly useful in easing implementation through removing administrative friction. These tools free teams to focus on patients rather than rebuilding processes from scratch.

The NHS ten-year plan has led to a year of significant change for community pharmacies with consultation, contraception and vaccine services scaling at an unprecedented rate. However, with the right support behind them, pharmacies are ready to go further and deliver consistent progress.

Neil Scobie is head of member engagement at Alphega