In January and February of 2026, the HSE and PSI began the rollout of a new service for community pharmacy across Ireland called the Common Conditions Service. This campaign was to enable community pharmacists to provide advice and offer expanded treatment options to patients for eight common conditions. The service broadened the scope of pharmacists’ roles by providing training that allowed them not only to advise and refer customers, but also to prescribe to patients. Across Ireland, 1,802 pharmacies now offer the Common Conditions Service, making up 94% of pharmacies in the country, according to MIMS.

The City spoke to Vasco Teixiera, a community pharmacist in Temple Bar Pharmacy in Dublin 2, about his experience with his new, expanded role as a community pharmacist. Teixiera began working as a pharmacist in Temple Bar Pharmacy in June of 2022, and since then, he has noticed many changes in pharmacy, especially since the emergence of the Common Conditions Service. “I feel like people are more willing to spend money in the pharmacy, as in getting the new service, and they don’t really mind paying for the service. They just want it quick, and they trust the service. They trust the knowledge of the pharmacists, so I believe we gain more confidence from the community, and they believe we are skilled professionals to prescribe and help with their minor conditions.”

The introduction of the Common Conditions Service means that participating pharmacists now integrate prescribing into their extensive role. According to the HSE, participating pharmacists now assess symptoms, advise on self-care, recommend or supply appropriate treatments (where clinically appropriate) and advise patients to contact their GP if further care is needed. I asked Teixiera how his workload has changed since this extra onboarding of responsibility: “I kind of have to refresh everything that I should do, should say, should write, should register, and prescribe. The one that I do the most is the UTI, so that one I feel comfortable enough to do it without refreshing my memory. But for the other ones, I actually have to read the protocol all over again and prepare myself for the consultation as well, so I feel like that’s the most challenging thing. It’s because I don’t do it as much as I should, or as there’s no like demand for those kinds of services. I feel like I have to refresh my memory every time I need to do it… So yeah, I feel like time management is essential in this case.”

Photo credit: Faye Thompson

Teixiera mentioned that major changes like this don’t come without teething issues and the Common Conditions Scheme is no exception. Teixiera explained how it is hard to play three roles for one customer. “I feel like I’m doing everything, and I don’t think like the person will understand, but from my point of view, I should only provide the service and provide the prescription if the person wants to get the prescription in the pharmacy that I work in. But charging it, it’s a different thing because you know it’s for the pharmacy, not for me… in terms of dispensing and always changing mode, so prescriber mode, pharmacist mode, and then go back to the other prescriptions that I should check. I think time management is essential.”

Overall, the offer of a consultation with a trained medical professional at a subsidised price and saving scarce GP appointments for people with more complex illnesses is the main goal of the Common Conditions Service according to Vasco.  “Although, in the future I would like to see the schemes expand and involve more than the current eight conditions.”

Academic integrity declaration: I conducted all interviews and reporting for this article.