A Blog from Solomon Abuede, Community Pharmacist Prescriber – Independent Prescribing
At CPWY, we’re running a series of updates to support anyone who is thinking about starting their own IP journey. Whether you’re already preparing your application, still weighing up your options, or simply curious about what the training involves, we want to help you feel informed, supported, and confident. See the document here which details the steps to take if this is something you are interested in.
Our ‘Your Path to Independent Prescribing Webinar’ took place on Tuesday 30th June. The session was recorded and can be watched here. 🎥
Have a read of our next brilliant blog by local community pharmacist Independent Prescriber, Solomon Abuede, how his IP qualification transformed what his pharmacy group (Midway Pharmacy) can offer.
Prescribing Ahead of the Curve: How My IP Qualification Transformed What We Offer in Community Pharmacy
I qualified as a pharmacist in 2008. Five years later, in 2013, I went back to complete my Independent Prescribing qualification at the University of Bradford.
At the time, if I’m honest, there wasn’t a clear and obvious need for it. The landscape hadn’t caught up. But I had a strong conviction that it would and community pharmacy would eventually move into a space where prescribing skills would matter, and that when that moment came, I wanted to be ready.
That moment has now well and truly arrived. But the story is more complicated than it first appears.
What the Qualification Unlocked at Midway Pharmacy
At Midway Pharmacy, my IP qualification has allowed us to build a range of private services.
This includes a full Travel Vaccination Service, including Yellow Fever and antimalarials, Chickenpox, Meningitis B, and HPV vaccines; period delay treatment, vitamin B12 injections, and a GLP-1 based Weight Management Service, which I prescribe and manage independently. It also includes a private prescribing service, which allows us to see patients who are unable to get a GP appointment or whose clinical needs do not necessarily require one.
For the patient, this means faster access to care, greater convenience, and less friction, particularly for conditions where people simply need a timely assessment and appropriate treatment rather than a lengthy wait. For the wider system, every patient we can assess and treat appropriately in the pharmacy is one fewer person placing pressure on an already overstretched general practice. Community pharmacy, at its best, is not just an alternative access point, it is an active part of the solution to some of the NHS’s most persistent demand pressures.
Many of these services can also be delivered through a Patient Group Direction (PGD), and PGDs have rightly enabled pharmacies across the country to expand what they offer safely and effectively over the years. At Midway Pharmacy, we have chosen the independent prescribing route, as it allows us to assess and prescribe on an individual patient basis where the clinical situation calls for it, offering a layer of flexibility that complements rather than replaces the important role PGDs continue to play.
A Moment that Stays with Me
The recent Meningitis B outbreaks in parts of the UK showed exactly why this matters. Because we had the vaccine in stock and the authority to administer it, we were able to help students and families at short notice when other providers could not.
One parent stands out. She came in worried about her child going on a school trip, having struggled to find a provider who could help. When she realised we had the vaccine available and could see her child that day, the relief was immediate and palpable. She told me how much it meant to access this kind of care outside the NHS; responsive, local, and clinically led. That exchange is a reminder of what community pharmacy can genuinely be for people when it is properly equipped and empowered to act.
The Profession is Catching up, but the Contract Needs to Follow
From 2026, newly qualifying MPharm graduates will register as IPs at the point of qualification for the first time. The profession has formally recognised that prescribing is central to what pharmacists can and should be doing. It is a landmark shift, and one I welcome.
But I want to be honest about the challenge that lies ahead, because I think it is important that we name it.
Having more IPs is necessary, but it is not sufficient on its own. Most IPs currently practising in community pharmacy are contractors like me who own the business and have built services around their own qualification out of personal initiative. They are not employed as IPs in a structured role; they are the business owners who also happen to prescribe. That is a very different situation from an employed IP working within a defined service framework.
Scotland has shown what a different approach can look like. Through the Pharmacy First Plus Service, Scottish contractors receive a monthly payment of £3,000 for providing an IP-led service for a minimum of 25 hours a week. This has created a genuine financial incentive for contractors to have an IP in place and has begun to build the infrastructure for prescribing to flourish in community pharmacy, even where the full clinical workload has not yet arrived.
In England, there has now been movement. The 2026/27 CPCF settlement, announced in May 2026, includes the introduction of IP into Pharmacy First and the Pharmacy Contraception Service from autumn this year.
This is a significant and long-awaited step. However, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) itself has been candid in its response: it is not persuaded that sufficient investment has been made to enable the full and effective introduction of IP into the contract, given the workload, enhanced clinical responsibility, clinical governance and infrastructure requirements involved. The decision about whether to provide IP-led services under the NHS contract will ultimately rest with individual pharmacy owners.
That honesty from CPE matters. It signals that having IP in the contract is not the same as having IP work properly embedded in community pharmacy. The structural question remains: will the funding and framework be enough to make this meaningful in practice, or will it be another step that looks significant on paper but falls short in delivery? Time, and the autumn implementation, will tell.
CPE, CPWY and other representative bodies across England have an important role to play in making the case for a contractual framework that catches up with the profession.
My Encouragement to You
If you have been considering your IP qualification, do not be put off by the structural gap. The private services landscape in community pharmacy has never been more viable, and contractors who invest in their prescribing capability now will be best placed to benefit when the contract does evolve.
If you have been considering your IP qualification, the timing has arguably never been better. The private services landscape in community pharmacy remains a strong and viable opportunity, and from autumn 2026, IP skills will also be formally embedded into NHS Pharmacy First and the Pharmacy Contraception Service for the first time. Contractors who already hold the qualification will be best placed to decide, on their own terms, whether and how to engage with those new NHS opportunities, as well as continuing to build private services around their prescribing capability.
The University of Bradford programme worked well for me and there are strong options available across the region. The course is demanding but very manageable alongside practice.
If you want to hear more about the practicalities of setting up and running private services in community pharmacy, including the conversations, decisions, and lessons along the way, I also host Behind the Counter: Pharmacy and Beyond (@_BTCPodcast), a podcast for pharmacists, aspiring pharmacy owners, and anyone interested in community pharmacy. You can find it on all major podcast platforms, including YouTube.
CPWY is also holding a webinar on Tuesday 30th June to guide you through the IP training programme. Have a look at the details below here!
The qualification I completed in 2013 felt ahead of its time. In 2026, it feels exactly right on time, and I hope the system delivers on its promise to match it.
Solomon Abuede, Co-Founder and Director of Midway Pharmacy, an independent community pharmacy group in West Yorkshire, and host of Behind the Counter: Pharmacy and Beyond.
