NHS Pharmacy First Scotland
1 April 2021 to 30 September 2024

About this release

This regular release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) presents information on the number and characteristics of patients accessing NHS Pharmacy First Scotland and Community Pharmacy Unscheduled Supply (CPUS) services. Pharmacy First Scotland enables community pharmacists to advise and provide treatment for a range of common self-limiting conditions. CPUS enables community pharmacists to provide patients with up to one prescribing cycle of their repeat medicines and appliances, where obtaining a prescription has not been possible.

More detailed information on these services and on planned developments can be found in the Background document.

Main points

Pharmacy First Scotland

• 35% of the Scottish population (1,895,836) used Pharmacy First Scotland in the most recent 12 months reported (October 2023 to September 2024).
• The number of people using Pharmacy First Scotland at least once each quarter increased by 60% in the three years from 464,363 in July - September 2021 to 743,121 in July - September 2024. This trend can be seen in both males and females, and across all age groups and deprivation quintiles.
• Of the 743,121 people accessing the service in the most recent reported quarter, 62% were female.
• The highest rate of Pharmacy First use was in the 0-9 years age group (205 per 1,000 population in the most recent quarter). This has been the case since reporting began.
• Use of Pharmacy First Scotland can be seen across all levels of deprivation in the population. In the most recent quarter reported, 45% of patients lived in the two most deprived quintiles.

Trend in number of patients per quarter using Pharmacy First Scotland: April 2021 - September 2024

A line graph showing the trend in number of male and female patients using pharmacy first by quarter from April 2021 to September 2024. The number of patients using this service has increased over the time period shown in both males and females.

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Pharmacy First Scotland

A line graph showing the trend in number of male and female patients using the Community Pharmacy Unscheduled supply service by quarter from April 2021 to September 2024. The number of patients using this service has increased over the time period shown in both males and females.

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Community Pharmacy Unscheduled Supply

Community Pharmacy Urgent Supply (CPUS)

• 11% of the Scottish population (615,430) used CPUS in the most recent 12 months reported (October 2023 to September 2024).
• The number of people using CPUS at least once in a quarter increased by 23% in the three years from 165,548 in July - September 2021 to 204,082 in July - September 2024.
• Of the 204,082 people using CPUS in the most recent reported quarter, 57% were female.
• CPUS utilisation increases in older age groups. Ten patients aged 0-9 per 1,000 population used the service in the most recent quarter reported, compared with 127 per 1,000 population among the 90+ age group.
• As with Pharmacy First, use of CPUS can be seen across all deprivation quintiles (using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020), with 46% of people living in the two most deprived quintiles using the service in the most recent quarter.

Background

Further information on NHS Pharmacy First Scotland can be found on the NHS Inform website and information on Community Pharmacy Unscheduled Supply on the Community Pharmacy Scotland website.  More detailed information on the statistics presented can be found in the Background and Data Quality documents.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be October 2025.