Frequently asked questions
What is actually in the database?
Far more than pharmacies: every NHS community pharmacy in the UK (12,900+), every GP practice and CQC-registered clinic (10,000+), NHS dental contracts, NHS trusts, and all 57,000+ CQC-regulated care locations — care homes, home care, hospices and more. All from official registers, refreshed automatically.
Where does the data come from?
Official NHS sources only: NHS Business Services Authority (England contractors + dispensing data), NHS Organisation Data Service (Wales + GP practices), Public Health Scotland, HSC BSO (Northern Ireland), the CQC, the GP Patient Survey and the MHRA. No scraped or user-submitted directory data.
What is the dispensing data?
NHS BSA publishes exactly what each English pharmacy dispensed each month, prescription items, EPS share, and declared advanced services like Pharmacy First consultations, NMS interventions, blood pressure checks and vaccinations. We track 13 months of it per contractor.
What can the map do?
Plot any search as pins, a chain network or a density heat map, then stack on extra layers from the Layers menu: GP surgeries and clinics coloured by CQC rating, dentists by UDA delivery, trusts, and six categories of CQC care. Select area drops a circle anywhere and counts everything inside it.
Is there someone I can just ask?
Yes — the Meduso helper (bottom right, or Ctrl+K then "Ask the Meduso helper") answers plain-English questions: how features work, where things live, and live counts like "how many pharmacies are in Leeds?" or "Boots vs Superdrug?". It runs entirely in your browser.
How up to date is it?
The pipeline checks its sources daily. Registers refresh when the national bodies publish (usually monthly), dispensing data lags by ~2 months by NHS BSA convention, EPS nominations are weekly, and MHRA safety alerts land daily. Every page carries a freshness stamp naming its source and period.
Is it free?
Yes, the directory, maps and headline analytics are free forever. Pro plans add full dispensing history exports, alerts and API access for professionals. All prices are plus VAT and all profits are donated to charity.
Are distance-selling (online) pharmacies included?
Yes, 460+ distance-selling pharmacies are a filterable type. Search "distance selling" and the query parser routes you straight to them.
Do you track Drug Tariff price concessions?
Yes, the concessions tracker follows every monthly DHSC price concession announced via Community Pharmacy England, flags rolled-over items, and benchmarks each against the Category M tariff price. New concessions land on the weekly refresh.
How do I keep up with changes?
Register Watch logs every pharmacy opening, closure and ownership change as the registers republish; the CQC tracker does the same for inspection ratings. Meduso itself is in public trial — the What's new page lists what every beta build adds.
Can I turn a clump of pins on the map into a list I can sort?
Yes. Click any numbered cluster on the map and you get a summary — store count, top towns, top chains — with a button to browse exactly those stores as a sortable, exportable table. Town and chain names in the popup are themselves one-tap filters.
Does the map remember where I was?
It does. The map returns to the position and zoom you last used, the Escape key closes any open popup, and a small counter top-left shows how many stores are in the current view. On mobile the map asks for two fingers to move, so scrolling the page never hijacks the map.
How do I share my favourites with a colleague?
Switch the Favourites filter on and press Share — the copied link carries the whole list. Whoever opens it imports those favourites into their own browser and sees the same view.
Can I print a pharmacy or GP practice summary?
Every pharmacy, GP practice and CQC care location has a PDF report button. It produces a clean one-page layout — key figures in a table, no menus or maps — ready to print or save as PDF.
Are there keyboard shortcuts?
On the search page: / focuses the search box, M flips between list and map, ? shows the full shortcut card. Ctrl+K (or Cmd+K) opens the command palette from anywhere.
How do I see what changed since my last visit?
Register Watch badges any opening, closure or relocation recorded after your previous visit with a 'new' marker. The What's new page lists every site update by beta number, and there is an Atom feed for register changes.
How do I jump the map to where I am right now?
Use the crosshair button at the top-right of the map. Your browser asks for location permission, then the map flies to you and shows a blue dot. Your position never leaves your device.
Can I see the pharmacies I viewed recently?
Click into the search box on the pharmacy search page — the drop-down lists your recent searches and your recently viewed pharmacy profiles. Everything is stored only in your browser and can be cleared at any time.
What does the amber dot next to a pharmacy in my results mean?
It means you have saved a private note on that pharmacy from its profile page. Hover the dot to preview the note. Notes live in your browser only — nothing is uploaded.
What does the number on the Open now button mean?
It is a live count of how many of the pharmacies in your current results are open at this moment, using each store's own opening hours. Apply the filter to narrow the list to just those.
Where can I look up what the NHS pays for a medicine?
The Drug Tariff prices page lists every basic price in Part VIIIA of the NHS Drug Tariff — around 3,000 products with pack size, reimbursement price and tariff category, refreshed from each monthly NHSBSA edition. You can search any drug, sort by pack price or per-unit cost, and export the list to CSV.
Can I see how a drug's NHS price has changed over time?
Yes. Click any product on the Drug Tariff prices page to open its full price curve back to 2010, with the all-time high and low and the year-on-year change. The movers panel also ranks the biggest rises and cuts over 12 months and five years. History comes from the OpenPrescribing tariff mirror at the University of Oxford.