Chamber and committees

The NHS Pharmacy First Scotland Service was launched on 29 July 2020.

This service constitutes a redesigned minor ailment and common conditions service, expanding on the pre-existing Minor Ailment Service and is available from all community pharmacies in Scotland.

The requested information is shown in the following table.

Pharmacy First Service

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-02107 on 17 August 2026. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Public Health Scotland published data on 28 July, this can be accessed online- General practice walk-in centres - month ending 30 June 2026 - General practice walk-in centres - Publications - Public Health Scotland.

Board trajectories against the 62 day cancer standard have been requested from all Health Boards.

These will be submitted to the Scottish Government's Health & Social Care Performance & Delivery Assurance Board for review and approval by the end of August.

Once agreed, performance against the trajectories will be monitored monthly by the Scottish Government and the East and West Subnational Planning & Delivery Committees to support delivery and ensure progress is maintained.

We have commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland to work on the evaluation of the pilot, in conjunction with Public Health Scotland. The Scottish Government expects a final report to be received once the pilot has concluded.

NHS Shetland is responsible for the operational management of the GP walk-in pilot site in Lerwick. Requests for details would be best directed to NHS Shetland.

There are ten walk-in services open across Scotland. Details of these services can be found online: Walk-in services | NHS inform.

A national monitoring and evaluation framework is being developed by Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Public Health Scotland and NHS Boards. This will assess cost, activity, patient experience, workforce impact, health inequalities, clinical safety and wider system effects. The walk-in services are designed to provide an additional route for patients to access same-day care for minor illnesses. Itis hoped that this will free up capacity within GP practices to focus on patients with complex, longer term conditions which require continuity of care.

Health Boards are responsible for the operational management of walk-in services, including all decisions about staffing. I would advise that you contact the Boards directly to request this information.

To date £18,007,797.50 has been allocated to boards for the walk-in pilot with opportunities to draw down further funding later within the financial year. Funding for next year will follow usual Budget processes.