Expansion New Medicine Service to Include Depression

Written by AlisonFreemantle on Friday 31st October 2025

Live from Wednesday 29 October 2025

Pharmacy contractors can access the updated service specification at: NHS England » NHS New Medicine Service and the list of all eligible medicines and corresponding conditions at: NHS BSA » NMS Eligible Drug List.

Recommended Training

Consultations undertaken as part of this service must only be carried out by pharmacists who have the necessary knowledge and skills to do so, with them assessing and declaring their competence by completing the NMS self-assessment form (Community Pharmacy England website).

To support effective delivery of the service for depression, CPPE ‘consulting with people with mental health problems’ has been included as a requirement in the 2025/26 Pharmacy Quality Scheme. 

This can be completed either:

The importance of person-centred care, provision of healthy living advice and signposting in discussions about antidepressants

Pharmacists are reminded that the service should be used to identify instances, where continuing with pharmacological therapy is not tolerated, desired, and/or clinically appropriate and refer patients back to the prescriber. This includes cases where in their professional judgement, a change to the prescribed therapy may be required, including discontinuation.

Additional changes to the NMS service

Pharmacies should make note that the wording in the updated service specification regarding the timing of the Intervention and follow-up consultations has been amended.

The Intervention consultation is to be undertaken between a minimum of 7 days and up to a maximum of 14 days after patient engagement, and the follow-up consultation is to be undertaken between a minimum of 14 days and up to a maximum of 21 days after the Intervention consultation.

The Intervention and follow-up consultations can only be delivered outside of the timeframes stated above in exceptional circumstances, e.g. the patient has informed the pharmacy staff that they will be away on holiday, and if in the professional opinion of the pharmacist they believe the patient would benefit from the continued provision of the service. The exceptional circumstances for delivery outside of the stated timeframes must be recorded in the pharmacy’s clinical record for the service.

Updated NMS Eligible Drug List

The NMS Eligible Drug List has been updated to incorporate changes following a full review of the list of drugs for all conditions eligible for the service.

Following the inclusion of depression as a further eligible condition for people aged 18 years and over, the following antidepressants are eligible for the service when prescribed for depression:

  • Citalopram
  • Escitalopram
  • Fluoxetine
  • Paroxetine
  • Sertraline
  • Duloxetine
  • Mirtazapine

Additional resources

Pharmacists should review the range of further learning and reference resources to support identified learning needs for depression and antidepressants, which include:

 

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