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UK Department of Health & Social Care

09/18/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/18/2025 05:34

Enabling pharmacist flexibilities when dispensing medicines

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Enabling pharmacist flexibilities when dispensing medicines

From: Department of Health and Social Care Published 18 September 2025
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Summary

This consultation seeks views on proposals to enable pharmacist flexibilities when dispensing medicines.

This consultation closes at
11:59pm on 11 December 2025

Consultation description

We propose to amend the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 to increase pharmacist flexibilities when dispensing medicines by enabling pharmacists working in a community pharmacy to supply a different strength or formulation (which may mean a different quantity) of the same medicine originally prescribed, in certain circumstances.

The aims of this proposal are to:

  • improve patient access to medicines
  • reduce the burden on healthcare systems
  • improve person-centred care

We are not expecting this measure to resolve all the issues surrounding medicine supply difficulties, but it is another tool for pharmacists to improve patient access to their medicines.

We intend to use this consultation to seek views on whether respondents agree with our proposal and to further assess any measurable impacts, risks and benefits before deciding whether to proceed with legislative change.

Documents

Enabling pharmacist flexibilities when dispensing medicines

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Impact assessment (draft)

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Updates to this page

Published 18 September 2025

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UK Department of Health & Social Care published this content on September 18, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on September 18, 2025 at 11:34 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]