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Our Totton branch has an incredibly high volume of original pack dispensing, roughly 45,000 items. As we became busier and busier in the dispensary we were finding that our pharmacists, dispensers and other technicians simply didn't have capacity to deliver the services that we needed them to. We all know there is a real emphasis right now on pharmacies doing more services and we knew we had to change the way we operate to survive. So we decided it was time to look into a sound automation solution for our medication dispensing process, one that would allow us to free up the time of the pharmacists and the rest of the team so they could better support patients. After a lot of research we invested in Centred Solutions FLOWRx Hub and InStore solutions which were installed late last year. It provides us with the whole package and has automated our entire dispensing process from picking to packing and labeling to checking. Our situation was quite unique as we bought the system initially for our existing high-volume pharmacy in Totton so the hub and the spoke are actually on the same site. People wouldn't usually look at a hub and spoke solution for that kind of set up but it has allowed us to significantly free up time in store for more services. What it has also done is allow us to look at other opportunities to grow and expand. The pharmacy landscape is changing and there are lots of opportunities coming up. We have found that having your technology and the right infrastructure in place to support your existing footprint before you expand is the ideal way to grow in a safe and controlled way. We never thought that five years ago we would buy another pharmacy, yet we have already bought one and are now in the process of buying two more. I'm not worried about the increase in volume this expansion will bring because I know our technology is going to be able to support it. The pharmacies we are buying are struggling but having our solution already in p

A recent study, conducted by CBD experts at Brown's CBD, unveiled Dundee as the UK's leading CBD hotspot, with an average monthly search volume of 530.29 per 100,000 residents, sparking a surge of interest in natural wellness solutions. New research analysed search volume data across UK cities for CBD-related terms, reflecting a staggering 1100% increase in searches for 'what is CBD' over the last decade. Following Dundee, Brighton secures the second spot in the rankings with an average monthly search volume of 530.08 per 100,000 residents for CBD related terms, closely trailed by St. Albans in third place. Other notable cities making the top ranks include Gloucester, Hereford, and Bath, indicating a widespread curiosity about CBD products and their purported health benefits.

Speaking at the SIGMA Conference 2023, Dr Leyla Hannbeck, CEO of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp), spoke about the increasing number of prescriptions, lack of funding and other existing challenges. Leyla explained how the pharmacy sector is facing immense challenges which are disrupting the delivery of services as well as impacting its growth. She further spoke about the hub and spoke model, and how it is unable to solve the issues. "Community pharmacies are clogged with prescription volume, and this is preventing them from supporting the wider NHS as well as offering services," she said. She said that the prescription volumes have rocketed, while the number of pharmacies in England has declined from 11, 522 in the year 2021-22 to 11, 414 in 2022-23. When it comes to Company Chemists' Association (CCA) pharmacies, there has been a loss of 1055 branches from 2022 to 2023.

A study conducted by Michigan Medicine revealed that individuals who experience type 2 diabetes over an extended period are increasingly prone to experiencing alterations in their brain structure. A group of scientists examined data from 51 middle-aged Pima American Indians who were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. They employed a set of memory and language assessments known as the NIH Toolbox Cognitive Battery, developed by the National Institutes of Health, alongside MRI scans. These analyses aimed to establish the connection between diabetes, cognitive function, and the composition of the brain. Brain imaging suggested that study participants with longer durations of type 2 diabetes had decreased mean cortical thickness and gray matter volumes, and an increased volume of white matter hyperintensities. The MRI results, researchers say, indicate the negative effects longstanding diabetes may have on brain health outcomes and emphasise the importance of preventing early onset type 2 diabetes.

Dermal fillers, also known as injectable facial fillers, can be an effective way to reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines, restore facial volume, and enhance certain features. While dermal fillers are generally safe, it's important to know about the potential benefits and side effects before you decide if they're right for you. In this blog post, we will look at the potential benefits and side effects of dermal fillers. We will also provide some tips for preparing for your treatment and ensuring a safe, successful procedure. So if you're considering dermal fillers, read on to learn more! HOW ARE DERMAL FILLERS INJECTED? Dermal fillers are typically injected directly into the skin with a small needle. Your doctor or injector will decide how much filler should be used and where it should be placed based on your desired outcome. In general, people who want to reduce wrinkles or enhance certain features may need more filler than those who just want to restore the volume in their face. Since they are injected under the skin, dermal fillers are minimally invasive and require little downtime after the procedure. It usually takes around 30 minutes to perform the procedure. Additionally, you may experience some swelling, bruising, and tenderness in the area where the filler was injected. This should subside over the next few days.

Cheek implant surgery aims at improving the appearance of sunken cheeks that have lost their shape and volume by placing implants in them,while Chin augmentation surgery is the right option for you if you have recessed chin and you want to improve its appearance. The procedure involves insertion of implant in chin.

Facelift surgery is the ultimate solution to visible signs of aging on face such as sagging skin and lost volume.

A great many people don't remain in a wheelchair long as there handicap could be impermanent or it's required while resting from a task. So an utilized wheelchair could be a decent venture or expect another person.

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As there remain is brief in a wheelchair frequently the utilized wheelchair will stay in great condition. As individuals for the most part utilize the wheelchair for a couple of days at that point purchasing an utilized wheelchair could be worth the speculation.

Fitting a wheelchair lift to your vehicle

In front of the pack to search for an utilized wheelchair would be the neighborhood daily paper or even the notice sheets of nearby markets or different spots of high volume of individuals. Wheelchairs are typically very modest yet purchase with alert to guarantee you purchase a decent one. When purchasing test the wheelchair out and ensure there is no undeniable imperfections.

Backrest Wheelchair Price


On the off chance that you know crippled parking spots now days are significantly bigger than the standard spaces. This is because of the requirement for space for a wheelchair slope to be utilized. The additional space permits the whee

The Competition and Markets Authority(CMA) has disqualified a former director of the pharmaceutical wholesaler Lexon for allegedly breaking competition law. Pritesh Sonpal - who has been accused of illegally sharing commercially sensitive information with competitors - will not be allowed to take up any director role or be involved in the management of any company based in England, Scotland or Wales for four years. The CMA in March 2020 found that Lexon - along with the pharmaceutical companies King Pharmaceuticals and Alissa Healthcare Research - illegally shared commercially sensitive information about the antidepressant nortriptyline, used by thousands of NHS patients, to inflate the price. Lexon was fined £1.2 million for breaking competition law. The government watchdog said between 2015 and 2017, when the cost of the drug was falling, the three companies exchanged information about prices, the volumes they were supplying and Alissa's plans to enter the market, in order to reduce competition.

In its effort to address workforce challenges, Health Education and Improvement Wales has outlined initiatives aimed at facilitating the return of pharmacy professionals with refugee status to active practice within Wales. This possibility has been stated in HEIW's Strategic Pharmacy Workforce Plan, which commits to investigating the practicality and significance of establishing a registration pathway for pharmacy professionals displaced due to refugee status. According to HEIW, it is currently investigating the viability and importance of revitalising 'return to practice' packages, formulating pharmacy apprenticeships, initiating international recruitment initiatives, and establishing a registration pathway in Wales for displaced pharmacists and pharmacy technicians holding refugee status. "In the past two years, we have arrived at a point where maintaining the desired access to the volume and quality of pharmacy services for our population has proven unattainable," said HEIW. "In Wales, instances of diminished pharmacy services are evident in both hospital and community settings. The trend of abrupt, temporary closures in community pharmacies continues."

The price concession for Atorvastatin 80mg has been increased to £3.91 from the previously set £3.45 for prescriptions dispensed in July, the Community Pharmacy England has said. The Department of Health and Social Care additionally introduced a concession price of £3.38 for Atorvastatin 20mg. "In July, our Dispensing and Supply Team experienced an unusually high influx of reports from pharmacies struggling to acquire Atorvastatin 80mg tablets at the listed Drug Tariff price," said CPE. CPE requested a price concession early in the month. However, after extended discussions, an agreement on the price wasn't reached. Consequently, on July 31st, the DHSC imposed a concession of £3.45. Addressing enduring pharmacy concerns over the pricing, CPE intensified advocacy with DHSC. This endeavour resulted in the revision of the Atorvastatin 80mg tablet concession price to £3.91 for prescriptions submitted and dispensed in July. According to CPE, this adjusted price sufficiently covers costs as reported by the majority of pharmacy owners. However, DHSC has refrained from modifying concessionary prices for the other two requested lines by CPE. DHSC communicated that their team's data collection for July, employing real-time sales and volume data, was incongruent with the adjustment of these prices, CPE further said.

To help pharmacy owner to better understand the negotiating process, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has published commentary and infographics. "Our work to negotiate fair funding, as well as changes to NHS pharmacy services, with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England is a crucial part of our role," said CPE. "Understandably the sector is eagerly awaiting an update on the progress of the current negotiations on the Government's pledge to invest £645m in community pharmacies and, as part of our ongoing efforts to improve transparency of our work, we have released materials to explain the negotiating process." Negotiating Team Member Stephen Thomas - who joined the team this year - has written a blog about his experiences. He has described both the complexity of the process and volume of work undertaken, and recognises the significance of his role on behalf of pharmacy owners across the country. Whilst speed is of the essence, even higher on the Negotiating Team's list of priorities is working through a large number of important questions - particularly around the funding and logistics that need to be put in place.

The NHS has launched plans to expand pioneering subscription-style drug contracts to develop lifesaving antibiotics of the future. It is building on its world-first pilot to incentivise the pharmaceutical industry to develop new antibiotics that could be offered to NHS patients when they need them the most. The consultation has launched almost a year to the day that contracts for two superbug-busting drugs were rolled out as part of a world-first pilot. Cefiderocol and ceftazidime-avibactam, new antibiotics manufactured by Shionogi and Pfizer respectively, were awarded world-first subscription contracts which provided the companies with a fixed annual fee based primarily on the availability of the drugs and their value to the NHS, as opposed to the volumes used. By breaking the link between the payments companies receive and the number of their antibiotics prescribed, the NHS is removing any incentive to overuse antibiotics, decreasing the risk of life-threatening infections, such as sepsis and pneumonia, becoming resistant to treatment.

A winter NHS crisis is inevitable unless the government acts now to reverse the worrying decline in community pharmacies. Years of government underfunding could see 3,000 pharmacies in England - around a third of the network - having no option but to shut their doors to patients in the next few years. That figure is based on independent assessments from Ernst & Young and UCL/LSE healthcare professors: it is not scaremongering - it is the reality the country faces. Fifty per cent of pharmacies are already in financial distress because government funding has been falling in real terms since 2019 and that figure is predicted to rise to 75 per cent within the next two years. The government needs to act now and invest in pharmacy or sleepwalk into a healthcare disaster as we have seen with access to dentistry care. Prescription volumes have risen consistently year-on-year by roughly 2 per cent which means fewer pharmacies doing more work and under greater pressure than a decade ago. Ten years ago around 11,200 pharmacies in England were dispensing roughly 79,000 prescriptions; nowadays around 11,500 are dispensing roughly 89,000 prescriptions. The secretary of state recently asked pharmacy to do more to avoid a winter NHS crisis and at the same time said there will be no new money to pay for those additional services. This at a time when the network is in decline with random unplanned pharmacy closures - 640 closures since 2016 - and pharmacy staff face huge workload pressures as prescription demand is increasing year-on-year. The government's approach to pharmacy literally does not add up: the pharmacy contract is not fit-for-purpose now let alone dealing with a NHS winter crisis.

Sun Pharma has announced that it will acquire all outstanding shares of Concert Pharmaceuticals through a tender offer for an upfront payment of $8.00 per share of common stock in cash, or $576 million in equity value. The upfront payment of $8.00 per share of common stock in cash represents a premium of approximately 33% to Concert's 30-day volume weighted average price as of January 18, 2023, the last trading day prior to today's announcement. Concert is a late-stage biotechnology company pioneering the use of deuterium in medicinal chemistry. Concert has an extensive patent portfolio, including its lead product candidate deuruxolitinib - an oral inhibitor of Janus kinases JAK1 and JAK2 for the treatment of Alopecia Areata, an autoimmune dermatological disease - which is in late-stage development. It has completed the evaluation of the efficacy and safety of deuruxolitinib in adult patients with moderate to severe Alopecia Areata in its THRIVE-AA Phase 3 clinical program and two open label, long-term extension studies are ongoing in North America and Europe. Sun Pharma's immediate focus would be to follow Concert's plan to submit a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the first half of 2023.

HRA Pharma is celebrating the 1st anniversary of Hana, the first type of daily oral contraception available in the UK without a prescription. The launch of Hana in 2021 followed the historic decision of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to grant a marketing authorisation and marked a significant step forward in the women's contraception category. The company reports that pharmacists have embraced the reclassification and have found merit in using emergency contraception consultations as an opportunity to educate women on their over-the-counter contraception options. Alison Slingsby, innovations project manager at HRA Pharma, commented: "We have been delighted with Hana's reception - within weeks of launch, it quickly became the best-selling mini-pill without prescription, with more than 95 per cent market share, and has maintained this market leading position ever since. We previously had the experience of switching emergency contraceptive ellaOne to a P medicine, Hana is on track to match and eventually exceed the ellaOne volumes.

Within the last few weeks, at least six pharmacists have been subjected to interim order applications - either suspended or had significant restrictions placed upon their registration pending a full 'Fitness to Practise' hearing into serious allegations being made about their prescribing practices, the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has found. It said that there has been a "dramatic increase in action being taken by the pharmacy regulator (GPhC) against pharmacist prescribers associated with certain types of online prescribing services". It has warned pharmacist prescribers who work for online pharmacies about the specific risks associated with remote prescribing using a questionnaire-based model, typically with no direct prescriber/patient interaction. Common features that underpin the allegations include the following: Overreliance on a patient questionnaire to inform clinical decision making; No patient/prescriber interaction; Prescribing high risk medicines without adequate safeguards; Inadequate systems and processes leading to inappropriate prescribing; Very high volumes of prescriptions being authorised in short periods of time; and Prescribers/patient relationship established via an unregulated online portal.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced that free COVID-19 lateral flow tests will be supplied through community pharmacies for at-risk groups. The service will operate from 6 November for patients aged over 12 years who are at risk of developing severe COVID-19 symptoms. Community pharmacies that have participated in this new initiative will be paid £4 plus VAT for each box of five lateral flow device test kits provided. Alastair Buxton, Director of NHS services at Community Pharmacy England said: "This is not going to be a high-volume service, but community pharmacy teams are well placed to provide LFD test kits to eligible patients with them having made over 25.5 million supplies of COVID-19 LFD test kits in 2021/22.

Keith Ridge, who retired from the role of England's chief pharmaceutical officer this month, has written to the NHS regional directors regarding a package to empower community pharmacies to implement clinical services in their integrated care systems. Though details about this letter are not available, Malcolm Harrison, chief executive officer of the Company Chemists' Association, welcomed the move saying: "It is a positive step towards the greater integration of community pharmacy care into the NHS. "It is vital for the NHS that patients can benefit from the clinical care services set out in the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework." Harrison, however, highlighted that while pharmacies are being pushed to do more, the efforts to introduce new clinical services should be supported with "sustainable funding and material actions to increase workforce numbers in the sector." "We are concerned that without the funding and people in place, the desired volume of necessary services cannot be delivered, no matter how well coordinated."

DE Group, one of the UK's leading independent pharmaceutical wholesalers, has gone into administration. Pharmacy Business has learnt that the group was put into administration on Monday (May 9), putting hundreds of jobs at risk and stoking fears of a "sudden shock" to pharmaceutical supply chain. A community pharmacy contractor who has done business with the wholesaler for over 20 years told Pharmacy Business: "I fear for the worst. I don't think there will be enough supply of medicines to cope up with a surge at such a short notice." Bharat Shah, founder and CEO of Sigma Pharmaceuticals, another leading short-line wholesaler, said the news will send shock-waves and have "a massive impact on the market" because DE Group enjoyed a "substantial coverage and market share" in the independent pharmacy sector. "It won't be easy for anyone to take on the extra volume as it could jeopardise their own business," he said, adding that Sigma was actively looking into expanding its own operations in the foreseeable future.