Health Education England has announced 327 new funded places on independent prescribing courses for pharmacists this year.

The education body said today that following work with universities offering GPhC-accredited prescribing training, 184 positions on IP courses will be available before March this year.

These will take around six months to complete and will confer IP annotation upon completion. A number of universities in the south, north and midlands of England are offering places.

To be eligible for a place, pharmacists must be working in England in community pharmacy, a non-ARRS primary care role, or in a health and justice setting.

Places are available on a first come, first served basis. Pharmacists must apply directly to course providers.

In addition to the IP training places, from autumn this year there will be 143 funded places on courses looking at ‘clinically enhanced’ independent prescribing provision (CEPIP), which combines the core GPhC course with “enhanced clinical content” including content on assessments and diagnosis.

The CEPIP course takes between eight to 12 months to complete, depending on the provider, and has more intensive face-to-face learning requirements. The course also provides IP annotation.

The eligibility criteria for gaining entry on CEPIP courses have not yet been published.

‘A welcome start’

HEE commented: “This opportunity will benefit pharmacists who are already in a position to apply and meet the eligibility criteria, and meets the requirement to progress this training as early as possible for community pharmacists and employers who have signalled they are ready to proceed.”

PSNC services director Alastair Buxton said: “Independent prescribing will be at the heart of many future developments in community pharmacy services, so this initial offer is a welcome start to support community pharmacists to develop their skills, particularly those who were already planning to commence training early in 2022.

“HEE is now putting in place the next phase of this IP training programme, so there will be many more opportunities for pharmacists to access training later in the year.”