Data development report: Pharmacy activity recorded in GP records

Summary

We should produce a data development report describing how pharmacy activity is recorded in GP electronic health records, using Pharmacy First and related pharmacy services as examples.

The focus of this report is what is observable in GP records, how this compares to national statistics, and what this tells us about recording and data completeness - not on methods.

Proposed structure

1. Pharmacy consultation codes in GP records

• Describe the main pharmacy-related consultation/service codes recorded in GP data.
• Present trends over time for all relevant pharmacy service codes (e.g. Pharmacy First, blood pressure checks, contraception).
• Compare counts in GP records with national-level published statistics where available.
• Pay particular attention to changes over time, including any step-changes following increases in service activity (e.g. post–October 2025, if data can be re-run).

Main aim:
Assess how well pharmacy consultation activity is reflected in GP records.

2. How medications issued from pharmacies are recorded

• Describe how medications associated with pharmacy services appear in GP records.
• Focus on:
  • Pharmacy First treatment medications.
  • The medication_status field and whether it provides useful info regarding medication issued from pharmacies.
• Present results for Pharmacy First medications in the main report.
• Move broader “all medications” context to supplementary material.

Key questions to consider perhaps?:

• Are pharmacy-issued medications identifiable in GP data?
• Are specific medication status values informative?
• What recording patterns dominate (e.g. historical/normal etc)?

3. Pharmacy First conditions

• Briefly describe how conditions associated with Pharmacy First appear in GP records.
• Emphasise that these are standard SNOMED codes.
• Refer to the existing Pharmacy First paper.