The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has submitted its response to the Department of Health and Social Care’s consultation on enabling pharmacist flexibilities when dispensing medicines.

The consultation proposes allowing pharmacists to use their professional judgement to supply an alternative strength or formulation of a medicine when the original item is unavailable — a change the RPS has long called for.

The RPS recognises the potential of these proposals to improve timely access to medicines and make better use of pharmacists’ skills. They could also ease pressures across the NHS by reducing the need for patients to return to prescribers for minor prescription amendments.

In our response, we highlight the need to ensure these measures are genuinely enabling for pharmacists and proportionate to the challenges faced in practice. Key points in our response include:

• Pharmacist flexibilities are already routine in secondary care and community pharmacists should be similarly empowered to use their clinical expertise
• Safeguards must be practical and straight forward – overly complex requirements risk undermining the effectiveness of the policy
• Excluding generic substitution is a missed opportunity to improve person-centred care and continuity of supply
• Introducing these flexibilities would reduce avoidable workload for prescribers and pharmacists, supporting more efficient use of NHS resources.

RPS President Professor Claire Anderson, said:

“This consultation is a landmark moment for pharmacy and patient care. We’ve long campaigned for pharmacists to be empowered to use their professional judgement in the face of medicines shortages, and it’s great to see progress being made.

“The final proposals must be practical and truly enabling. Pharmacists are highly trained clinicians, and unnecessary bureaucracy must not stand in the way of providing patients with timely access to the medicines they need. Measures that empower pharmacists to act swiftly and safely will ease pressures across the system and improve patient care.

“We look forward to working with the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure that the final policy supports pharmacists in delivering the best outcomes for patients.”

The consultation proposals align with key recommendation from the RPS’s influential 2024 report, “Medicine Shortages: solutions for empty shelves”, which called for urgent reforms to enable pharmacists to act swiftly and safely when medicines are unavailable.

RPS wrote to the Secretary of State for Health in 2020 outlining the need for legislative change, supported by medical organisations, patient groups and other pharmacy bodies.

Read our consultation response.

Read more RPS news stories.