PCN Pharmacist Services
PCN Pharmacist Services
Supporting PCNs with structured clinical pharmacy services
Our PCN pharmacist service coordinates agreed clinical pharmacy work across member practices, with service oversight and reporting to support medicines safety and continuity of care.
We agree the workstreams, practice-level allocation and network reporting with you, under our clinical governance and data security framework. Our guide to pharmacist and pharmacy technician roles explains how the two roles contribute.
How Will This Help My Practice?
Virtual Pharmacist’s clinical team offers management support for PCNs in order to reduce pressure on Clinical Directors. The service adds capacity for medicines reviews, monitoring and follow-up across member practices.
Needs-Matched, Turnkey Support
Service Governance & Quality Assurance
Optimised Use of ARRS Roles
“The team is consistently reliable. Phones are always answered and emails come back the same day. It’s made a real difference to how we run our medication reviews.”
“Fast email replies and clinical input whenever we need it. They picked up our medicines work seamlessly and delivered from day one.”
“Excellent service from start to finish. Easy to reach, quick to reply, and they clearly know NHS workflows inside out. We couldn’t recommend the team more highly.”
How network-level medicines support works
Why scope at network level rather than practice by practice
When a workstream is scoped once for the whole network, the protocol is agreed once, the audit runs once, and the reporting arrives in one shape. That is the efficient way to run it: practice-by-practice arrangements usually mean the same problem gets solved several times over, in slightly different ways.
Sizing capacity so every practice gets what it needs
A shared protocol is easy to agree across a network. Prevalence, list turnover and deprivation still vary sharply between practices in the same PCN, so we size the volume per site while keeping one standard across all of them. That is what makes network-level commissioning work well in practice.
Working across more than one clinical system
Networks are rarely uniform, and that is fine. We work inside EMIS, SystmOne, Vision and Medicus, so your network does not need to standardise its software before it can standardise its medicines work. Access is arranged through your existing systems, with nothing new to install.
What happens when someone is unavailable
Cover is our responsibility, not yours. Sickness, leave and turnover sit with us as the provider, which is the practical difference between commissioning a service and filling a role. We manage cover against the agreed service schedule, clinical priorities and escalation arrangements.
Read our clinical governance and data security framework, or tell us which workstream you would like covered.
What a PCN pharmacist service covers
A PCN pharmacist service from Virtual Pharmacist is a managed clinical pharmacy service run across your whole network. You agree the workstreams and the clinical standard once. We deliver the work inside each practice’s own clinical system and report back per practice and for the network.
The workstreams networks most often hand over to us:
- Structured medication reviews, including counted blocks for a set period
- High-risk drug monitoring and safety alert searches, worked patient by patient
- Medicines-related QOF work across the year, not only in March
- Reconciliation of hospital discharge and clinic letters
- Repeat and acute prescription requests and medicines queries
- Prescription signing by our independent prescribers
- Coordinated recall reviews, with follow-up or staged appointments where clinically needed
Who does the work
The work is carried out by our clinical team: more than 100 GPhC-registered pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, all working under one clinical governance framework. 85% of the pharmacists are independent prescribers. Technicians take the work that suits them, such as searches and reconciliation, so pharmacist time goes where it is needed. The same core team stays with your network, learns each practice’s protocols and systems, and keeps one clinical standard however many practices you have.
How it runs across your practices
- We agree the workstreams, the protocol and the reporting with your clinical director or PCN manager.
- We size the volume for each practice, so a large list and a small one both get what they need.
- Our team works remotely in EMIS, SystmOne, Vision or Medicus and codes every action in the practice’s own record as it goes.
- You receive reporting for each practice and for the network, in one format.
- Cover for leave and sickness sits with us, so the schedule holds.
What it has delivered for PCNs
- Lincolnshire, nine-practice PCN: 315 hours of medication reviews in a first block, delivered to one pathway across all nine practices. The PCN then moved to a full-year contract covering the whole network.
- Norfolk and Waveney PCN: 1,000 structured medication reviews delivered between October and March, alongside a technician service, all under one governance.
- Somerset PCN: a 287-hour block of medication reviews, followed by an extension.
We have supported 375+ GP practices and 88+ PCNs in 23 ICB areas, across all seven NHS regions. Ask and we will arrange a reference call with a PCN doing similar work. Read the full case studies.
Federations and neighbourhood teams can commission the same network method across a wider footprint. See our clinical pharmacy service for GP federations and clinical pharmacy for integrated neighbourhood teams.
PCN pharmacist services and ARRS funding
Many networks fund this work through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme. Our ARRS page and our guide to ARRS funding in 2026/27 explain how the scheme works. Because the work is scoped, delivered and reported as a defined service, the network can see the clinical return on what it spends.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is a PCN pharmacist?
We deliver medicines optimisation across Primary Care Networks, taking responsibility for the quality of that service. Our team of PCN pharmacists will support GP practices within the network to improve patient care while significantly reducing workloads.
How do you coordinate work across multiple practices in a PCN?
What does a PCN pharmacist provider do?
A PCN pharmacist provider delivers clinical pharmacy work across the practices in a Primary Care Network under its own clinical governance. With Virtual Pharmacist, the network agrees the workstreams and the standard once, and we deliver and report on the work in every practice.
Can you work across practices on different clinical systems?
Yes. We work in EMIS, SystmOne, Vision and Medicus, and one network can use a mix of them. Access is arranged through your existing systems.
Can we start with a defined block of work?
Yes. Many networks start with a counted block, such as a set number of structured medication reviews, then extend it or widen it to more workstreams.
