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Only 2,013 pharmacist trainees out of 2,417 who started their foundation pharmacist training in 2025/26 and were required to have a designated prescribing practitioner (DPP), have been assigned one (as of February 2026), leaving 404 without one, according to a Government answer to a parliamentary written question from Helen Morgan MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Health and Social Care.

This “lays bare the stark reality that some trainees may not have the opportunity to register as a pharmacist as they had planned,” said the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA). 

The organisation, which has warned of the bottleneck in DPPs for some time, has repeatedly been assured by NHS England (NHSE) that there were sufficient DPPs within the system. The other consequence is that if some current trainees were only able to secure a DPP for the next academic year, this would also impact the availability of DPPs for 2026/27 trainees. 

The NHSE decision in December 2024 to postpone the requirement to mandate pharmacy employers to offer multi-sector rotations in the foundation pharmacist training programme from 2026/27, combined with the shortage of DPPs available within community pharmacy, meant there was little to no incentive for DPPs in other settings to offer their supervision services to community pharmacy trainees.   

The problem would not be resolved until there are sufficient prescribers in the community pharmacy workforce, which would need a nationally commissioned independent prescribing service, said the CCA.

Malcolm Harrison, CCA chief executive, said: “Over 400 pharmacy graduates may not be able to complete their foundation training, through no fault of their known. 

“NHS England must urgently engage with placement providers to ensure that there are sufficient DPPs for all Foundation Pharmacists. The CCA has been warning NHS England of the shortage of DPPs for some time. 

“The sector continues to experience a shortage of community pharmacists. The current requirements are simply not up to speed and will mean fewer pharmacists join the register”.

According to the government, 1,814 of 2,119 summer starters (85.6%) and 199 of 318 autumn starters (62.5%) had submitted DPP details, but it was continuing to monitor the situation.