World Pharmacists Day 2025: Think Health, Think Pharmacist

New Community Pharmacy Agreement unlocks wider services for the public and provides easier access to essential healthcare.

Thursday, 25 September 2025: The Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) today marks World Pharmacists Day 2025, noting that this year’s celebration has a particular importance as Irish pharmacy prepares for a major transformation in community-based healthcare. This year’s theme ‘Think Health, Think Pharmacist,’ highlights the leading role of pharmacists as trusted medicines experts and frontline healthcare providers.

Earlier this month saw the publication of the Community Pharmacy Agreement 2025 between the Department of Health, the Health Service Executive (HSE), and the IPU. The Agreement sets out a comprehensive and ongoing pathway to modernise and expand the role of community pharmacists in Ireland. For patients nationwide, this means easier access to essential healthcare, faster treatment for common conditions, and a stronger focus on prevention and early detection.

Over the coming months pharmacies will deliver a range of expanded services designed to improve patient care. These include:

• A Common Conditions Service: allowing pharmacists to prescribe treatments for a wide range of minor and self-limiting illnesses, reducing pressure on GP and hospital services.
• Vaccination Service Expansion: to support the increased uptake of pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV23), it has been agreed, commencing in the coming months, that community pharmacists will administer the PPV23 vaccine to healthy over 65-year-olds with medical card eligibility.
• Safe Medicines Disposal: the introduction of a nationwide medicines returns and disposal service, supporting both patient safety and environmental sustainability.

Community pharmacies will also play a greater role in the delivery of key public health measures, including encouraging greater participation in national screen programmes, such as Bowel Screening services, helping to drive earlier detection and disease prevention. Further services will follow, ensuring that pharmacy continues to evolve as a cornerstone of accessible primary care.

Speaking on World Pharmacists Day, President of the IPU, Tom Murray, said: “This World Pharmacist Day, we are encouraging people to ‘Think Health, Think Pharmacy.’ Pharmacists are medicine experts and trusted advisors in every community across Ireland. The new Agreement with the Department of Health and the HSE is an important recognition of that role and a major step in expanding the future for pharmacy in healthcare delivery.”

“The IPU has long advocated for an expanded role for pharmacists, ensuring that patients benefit from timely, safe, and convenient access to healthcare in their own communities. With pharmacies located in every town and village across Ireland, the profession is uniquely positioned to relieve pressure on GPs and hospitals while improving health outcomes for patients.”

“World Pharmacists Day 2025 is not only a time to celebrate the profession’s achievements but also to look ahead. The IPU looks forward to working with the Department of Health and the HSE to ensure that this new Agreement delivers meaningful, lasting improvements for patients and communities across Ireland,” he concluded.