How it works
How a remote pharmacist consultation works
One terminal puts a pharmacist in your consultation room.
Exactly what happens in your community pharmacy for your patient, your team, and the remote pharmacist (sometimes called telepharmacy). NHS England guidance permits clinical-pathway consultations by good-quality live video, and a registered professional stays in the loop at every step. See what the spec allows.
Your Responsible Pharmacist remains on the premises throughout, running dispensing and supply as today. Remote Pharmacist adds consultation capacity; it never replaces your RP.
The model
Four steps, start to finish.
01 · Check in
Greet the patient
Your team: reception books them into the consultation room, exactly as today.
02 · Connect
Start secure video
Your team: starts the call on the terminal. The patient is never left alone with a screen.
03 · Consult
Assess and advise
The remote pharmacist: a GPhC-registered pharmacist works through the relevant clinical pathway.
04 · Outcome
Record and claim
The platform: notes, supply or referral and audit, and the £17 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 (a tablet on a stand or a room screen), and a good-quality connection. We provide minimum-bandwidth guidance, and there’s no hardware to buy first.
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.
When video isn’t enough
A documented convert-to-face-to-face protocol: if the pharmacist judges the presentation needs an in-person examination, the consultation converts or refers rather than pushing on. See the clinical-safety approach.
Honest by design
Which Pharmacy First pathways work by video?
| Activity | Suitable by video? |
|---|---|
| 6 of the 7 Pharmacy First pathways (sinusitis, sore throat, infected insect bites, impetigo, shingles, uncomplicated UTIs) | Yes |
| Acute otitis media (earache) | In person (needs an otoscope) |
| Private and paid consultations and advice | Yes |
6 of 7 clinical pathways are video-suitable. See the full breakdown on the Pharmacy First page, or the services you can deliver.
Ready to see it live?
A 20-minute walkthrough of the in-room terminal, the consultation flow and the audit trail.