Deadline to begin PQS antimicrobial stewardship clinical audit approaches

Contractors participating in the 2025/26 Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) have been reminded that they have until 3 February 2026 to begin the PQS Antimicrobial Stewardship – Pharmacy First consultations – Clinical Audit.

The clinical audit is designed to support pharmacy teams when reflecting on their management of patients referred to the pharmacy or presenting in the pharmacy seeking the treatment of sore throat.

Guidance is available on the NHS England website to support contractors completing the audit.

Anonymised data captured during the audit should be submitted using the online data collection tool by 31 March 2026. The tool can be accessed via the NHSBSA Manage your service (MYS) portal.

To carry out the audit, pharmacists must fill in a data collection form after each patient consultation and then a data analysis form at the end of the process to identify any learnings for future practice.

Data should be collected on a minimum of 10 patients over a four-week period. However, if data cannot be collected on 10 patients during that time, then the audit period must be extended to eight weeks.

An antimicrobial was supplied in 45% to 85% of Pharmacy First consultations between April 2024 and March 2025, according to the November 2025 UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) English surveillance programme for antimicrobial utilisation and resistance (ESPAUR) report.

The supply of antimicrobials was lowest for patients with acute otitis media (45%) and acute sinusitis (47%) while more than 60% of consultations resulted in the supply of an antimicrobial for acute sore throat (65%) and impetigo (68%).

And according to a recent report in the journal JAC – Antimicrobial Resistance, community pharmacy teams have helped reduce patient escalations and promote antimicrobial stewardship through widespread use of the TARGET 'Treating Your Infection' (TYI) respiratory tract infection (RTI) leaflets.