The Pathfinder Programme will enable community pharmacist prescribers at pathfinder sites to issue NHS prescriptions for conditions such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases
Community pharmacists involved in the Independent Prescribers Pathfinder Programme will be able to generate NHS prescriptions through the NHS Electronic Prescription Service (EPS).
NHS England has secured a new clinical system, CLEO SOLO from Cleo Systems, to facilitate this service.
The system is being rolled out to ‘pathfinder’ sites so they can start delivering their proposed prescribing models and pathways.
Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) across England have been informed of this development and are asked to provide support and leadership to their sites throughout the programme, which will run until March 2025.
NHS England will also conduct a series of webinars with ICBs to discuss the CLEO SOLO rollout.
David Webb, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer at NHS England, highlighted that the Pathfinder Programme will enable community pharmacist prescribers at ‘pathfinder’ sites to issue NHS prescriptions for conditions such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
“This will help us develop a framework which will support the commissioning of independent prescribing as part of clinical services in community pharmacy in the future,” Webb said.
Starting September 2026, all newly qualified pharmacists will be independent prescribers upon registration.
This shift offers NHS England an opportunity to commission clinical services from community pharmacies that incorporate independent prescribing, as the new workforce joins the profession.
In preparation, NHS England and Integrated Care Boards have launched the Community Pharmacy Independent Prescribing Pathfinder Programme, aimed at enabling community pharmacist prescribers to play a greater role in delivering clinical services in primary care.
The initial phase of the programme includes 210 ‘pathfinder’ sites, chosen to implement and test proposed prescribing models within integrated primary care clinical services.
In June 2024, NHS allocated funding to Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) for project management, clinical supervision, and local evaluation.
NHS England has revealed that their evaluation partners, including the University of Manchester and ICF International, are working with regional teams, ICBs, and the national team to ensure a “robust independent evaluation” of the programme.
