How it works
How a remote pharmacist consultation works
One terminal turns your consultation room into a pharmacist-staffed room.
Exactly what happens for your patient, your team, and the remote pharmacist. A registered professional stays in the loop at every step.
The model
Four steps, start to finish.
01 · Check in
Greet the patient
Reception books them into the consultation room, exactly as today.
02 · Connect
Start secure video
Your on-site team starts the call, and the patient is never left alone with a screen.
03 · Consult
Assess and advise
A GPhC-registered pharmacist works through the relevant clinical pathway.
04 · Outcome
Record and claim
Notes, supply or referral and audit; the NHS claim flows through your assured system.
What stays the same
The things you can’t change, unchanged.
Your Responsible Pharmacist
Remains required and present on the premises for dispensing and supply.
Your dispensing workflow
Untouched. The remote pharmacist adds consultation capacity, nothing else.
Your NHS claims
Still flow through your site’s NHS-assured Pharmacy First IT system and MYS.
Practicalities
Equipment, room and connectivity.
What you need
Your existing consultation room, the terminal (an iPad or a room screen), and a good-quality connection. We provide minimum-bandwidth guidance.
If the connection drops
A defined recovery path (reconnect or reschedule) so no consultation is left half-finished. Clinical-pathway consultations need good-quality video, so audio-only is never used to complete them.
Honest by design
Not everything is suitable for video.
| Activity | Suitable by video? |
|---|---|
| Six of the seven Pharmacy First pathways (sinusitis, sore throat, insect bites, impetigo, shingles, UTI) | Yes |
| Acute otitis media (earache) | In-person, otoscope needed |
| Private and paid consultations and advice | Yes |
6 of 7 clinical pathways are video-suitable. See the full breakdown on the Pharmacy First page.
Ready to see it live?
A 20-minute walkthrough of the in-room terminal, the consultation flow and the audit trail.