About Pharmacy Compare

Pharmacy Compare (pharmacycompare.uk) exists for one reason: finding a pharmacy is harder than it should be. Not because the information doesn’t exist — it lives in NHS datasets, pharmacy websites and official registers — but because it’s scattered across all of them, and much of it is out of date by the time you find it.

So we built a directory. Every NHS community pharmacy we can verify, organised by town and postcode, with the details that actually matter: address, phone number, opening hours and the NHS services on offer — Pharmacy First, blood pressure checks, flu vaccinations and the rest. No account needed. Nothing to pay for.

Run by

James Whitfield, independent researcher

Guides reviewed by

Regina Agada, GPhC-registered pharmacist (GPhC 2231463)

Main data source

NHS Business Services Authority

Contact

info@pharmacycompare.uk

Why the site exists

Pharmacy Compare started the way most small sites do: with a personal frustration. Trying to find a pharmacy open early on a Sunday, or one offering blood pressure checks without phoning five places first, meant jumping between the NHS website, search engines and individual pharmacy sites that hadn’t been touched in years. The information existed; it just wasn’t in one usable place.

We fix that in the most boring, reliable way we know: start from official data, keep it current, and present it clearly.

What the site does (and doesn’t) do

Pharmacy Compare is a directory. That’s it, and that’s deliberate.

Where the data comes from

The backbone of the directory is the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) list of community pharmacies in England under NHS contract, including addresses, ODS codes and contract status.

Around that, we cross-check against:

• The NHS website (nhs.uk) — each pharmacy’s profile, plus service descriptions and general health information
• Each pharmacy’s own website — for opening hours and services, where it has one
• GOV.UK and NHS England — for national guidance on NHS pharmacy services

We don’t use scraped review sites or unverified third-party directories, because we can’t stand behind information we can’t check ourselves. The full list is on our data sources page.

One honest limitation: the NHSBSA list covers England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own pharmacy contract arrangements, so coverage here is focused on England (plus a small number of pharmacies on the Isle of Man and in the Channel Islands). If that changes, this page will say so.

How we research

Every page starts with the data, not the other way around:

1. Start from the latest NHSBSA pharmacy contractor data
2. Clean it and map every pharmacy to its town and county using its address, postcode and ODS code
3. Check each pharmacy online, one by one, against its NHS website profile and its own website
4. Research each town page properly — which pharmacies serve the area, what they offer, and what people there actually search for when they need a pharmacy
5. Publish, date it, and re-check on a fixed schedule

That research step matters more than it sounds. We check what real people are searching for and compare it with what’s actually on the results pages, so the site answers questions people genuinely have — not just the ones that are easy to write. Read our editorial policy and our methodology for the detail.

Who runs Pharmacy Compare

Pharmacy Compare is run by James Whitfield, an independent researcher. James is not a pharmacist or a doctor, and the site says so wherever it’s relevant — we’d rather be clear about that than vague. His job is the part that can be done properly from the outside: sourcing official data, verifying it against multiple records, and presenting it without spin. Anything clinical you read on this site traces back to the NHS or another official body, linked at the point of use.

You can find James on LinkedIn.

There’s no team, no investors and no pharmacy chain behind this site. If that ever changes, it will say so here.

Medical review

This site deliberately publishes no clinical guidance of its own — no symptom advice, no treatment recommendations — so most pages don’t need a clinician’s sign-off. What does get checked is factual: service descriptions against NHS specifications.

Service descriptions and guides on this site are reviewed by Regina Agada, a GPhC-registered pharmacist based in the UK (registration number 2231463). You can check her registration on the General Pharmaceutical Council register, and find her on Instagram. Reviews cover the factual accuracy of what we say about NHS pharmacy services — never personal medical advice.

Independence

No pharmacy, chain or company can pay to be listed, unlisted, ranked higher or removed. The site is free, self-funded and independent. You can read exactly how it’s kept running on our how Pharmacy Compare is funded page.

Corrections and feedback

If something on the site is wrong — a phone number, an opening hour, a pharmacy that has closed — tell us at info@pharmacycompare.uk or use the correction form. Corrections get checked against the official record and fixed, usually within a few days.

Not medical advice

Nothing on this site is medical advice, and Pharmacy Compare has no involvement in any care you receive from a pharmacy. Our medical disclaimer is short and worth a minute of your time.