NHS Pharmacy First Scotland
Financial year 2021/22
An Experimental Statistics publication for Scotland
- Published
- 28 March 2023
- Type
- Unclassified
- Author
- Public Health Scotland
About this release
This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) presents information on the numbers and characteristics of patients accessing the NHS Pharmacy First Scotland service during financial year 2021/22. The NHS Pharmacy First Scotland service was launched on the 29th July 2020. Expanding on the previous Minor Ailments Service, all pharmacies in Scotland offer advice and treatment for a range of common conditions to all Scottish patients without having to visit their GP surgery.
Main points
Between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022:
- Twenty-three percent of the Scottish population (1,242,801 people) accessed Pharmacy First Scotland services at least once.
- Of the 1,242,801 people accessing the service, 61% were female and 39% were male.
- The highest rate of people accessing the service was in the 0-9 years age group (469 females per 1,000 pop and 444 males per 1,000 pop).
- Use of Pharmacy First Scotland can be seen across all levels of deprivation in the population. Forty-five percent of patients lived in the two most deprived quintiles.
- In 86% of contacts, patients received an item. Of the remaining contacts, 10% resulted in advice only (for example, advice on self-care) and 4% resulted in an onward referral to another healthcare professional.
Background
Further information on this service can be found here: NHS Pharmacy First Scotland. 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 March 2024.
General enquiries
If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please email phs.prescribing@phs.scot.
Media enquiries
If you have a media enquiry relating to this publication, please contact the Communications and Engagement team.
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Older versions of this publication
Versions of this publication released before 16 March 2020 may be found on the Data and Intelligence, Health Protection Scotland or Improving Health websites.