The PPA's PACT information system, provides GPs with frequent reports about their prescribing patterns. The centre pages of the reports focus on a particular medicine related issues. The Medical Director gives presentations on prescribing matters and the PPA information services and organises conferences on prescribing issues for professional organisations .

The PPA maintain close links with Health Authority medical and pharmaceutical advisors and the Authority liase with them through local, regional and national meetings. In addition, the Medical Director maintains a dialogue with the Royal College of General Practitioners, the British Medical Association, the Drug Safety Research Unit, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, academia, the pharmaceutical industry and a wide range of other bodies.

The Directorate of Pharmaceutical Advisory Services works closely with the Medical Directorate on prescribing issues. Led by two pharmacists, the Directorate has two main areas of activity, pharmaceutical issues and Central Quality Assurance. The Directorate has ISO 9001 accreditation for Central Quality Assurance services.

There are seven areas of pharmaceutical activity:

• consideration of NHS Acts and Regulations appertaining to the provision of General Medical and Pharmaceutical Services and the Drug Tariff, determining their impact on the work of the Authority and preparing operational instructions for the prescription processing function.
  
• the compilation, updating, printing and monthly distribution of the Drug Tariff on behalf of the NHS Executive to medical and pharmaceutical personnel;
  
• the compilation and production of medicine charts, lists, technical procedure manuals, memoranda and allied documents required by prescription processing staff in the execution of their function;
  
• the maintenance of the PPA Primary Care Drug Information Database of medicines and appliances prescribed as part of NHS Pharmaceutical Services. This Database is a main contributor to the PPA Information Service.
  
• a Query / Help Desk service for matters relating to prescription processing and more generally with manufacturers / suppliers  of pharmaceuticals, NHS Executive, Department of Health, Health Authorities Professional Advisors.
  
• compilation and publication of PPA Matters to pharmacy contractors, dispensing doctors and Health Authorities. This provides advice and guidance on reimbursement issues and also incorporates PACT Centre Pages.

Central Quality Assurance carries out the reprocessing of a statistical sample of the prescription forms processed by the Prescription Pricing Service. It aims to monitor standards and measure the accuracy of prescription data captured and payments to contractors.