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The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) and BeWell are working together to help provide efficiencies and productivity that address the growing pressures within community pharmacy. BeWell's Pharmacy Management Platform provides robust solutions that include Patient Relationship Management, Omnichannel Communications and Engagement, Services and Bookings Management, access to patient records, NHS Login supported Patient Application, and repeat prescription capabilities for Pharmacy Website and Patient App that include integrations with Surgery Online Services. This single interoperable platform is also integrated with pharmacy PMRs, connecting back office and administrative functions with front-of-house digital patient experiences. In line with the NPA's vision, BeWell has taken a leading role in formulating a unique ecosystem of pharmacy partners uniting marketing agencies, PGD-based service providers, and delivery method partners - integrating their capabilities within the BeWell platform.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and Pharmacist Support hosted a roundtable on the impact of pharmacy workforce wellbeing on patient safety on Wednesday (17 May). It also released its annual Workforce Wellbeing Survey which showed continued pressures on pharmacy teams. The discussion explored the actions needed to support staff so they can continue providing safe and effective patient care and included representatives from the NHS, professional bodies, employers, trade unions, education and regulators. A report of the roundtable will be published in the summer. Amandeep Doll, RPS Head of Professional Belonging, said: "We know that pharmacy teams go above and beyond for their patients, but are also under enormous pressure. "Now more than ever, we need to strive to make the pharmacy profession more inclusive and ensure that everyone's wellbeing is supported. "It is vital that we do all we can to encourage people into pharmacy and to support them so they can enhance their skills, develop their careers, and continue to deliver high-quality patient care. "This discussion was a welcome step and showed that making a difference for staff wellbeing requires a concerted effort from stakeholders across the whole of pharmacy.

Charac, an NHS-integrated one-stop platform for independent community pharmacies, has secured £1 million strategic investment from the Royal Mail Group, enabling its time-saving platform to assist more local pharmacies and patients across the UK to easily manage their prescriptions and consultations online. The company said this new money will enable it to leverage strong levels of trust that pharmacists enjoy within the communities they serve in and will ensure pharmacies remain a cornerstone of vibrant high streets and an invaluable provider of frontline healthcare products and services, including vitally needed consultations. Charac says it is aiming to sign up over 1,000 UK pharmacies in the next 12 months by expanding its geographic footprint beyond current cities, including London, Manchester and Birmingham, and targeting small multiple and independent pharmacies, accounting for almost 40 per cent of the UK's community pharmacy network. The announcement also sees the addition of Stefan Kulik, a managing director at Royal Mail, to the Charac board. Stefan is responsible for leading Royal Mail's expansion into the healthcare industry and brings a breadth of experience, having previously worked in healthcare with companies including Johnson & Johnson.

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has commissioned Professor David Taylor of University College London to investigate the implications of all-time high inflation rates on community pharmacies in the UK. Professor Taylor's will assess rates of inflation affecting community pharmacy across the UK, using public data sources whilst examining inflated costs in the context of the current five year contractual framework in England (2019-2024). He would review the EY (Ernst & Young) report into pharmacy funding, to identify whether current inflationary pressures could change any of the findings and consider the policy implications and impacts of inflationary pressures, including pharmacy's ability to prepare for a more clinically focused future and maintain current core services. NPA chief executive Mark Lyonette said: "Inflationary pressures are eating into the limited funds provided by the NHS for pharmacy services. We believe the real level of inflation for pharmacy businesses could be higher than the CPI inflation rate, which itself is at a 40 year high. Staff and locum costs in the sector as well as medicines costs have risen dramatically.

After the government announced to award pay rise to pubic sector workers, pharmacy trade bodies have expressed their disappointment at the neglect shown towards funding crisis in community pharmacy. The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) chair, Andrew Lane, said: "Our sector can't help but feel utterly neglected after seven years of crushing real terms cuts to pharmacy funding, amounting to half a billion pounds, and no hint of any relief to come. "This week's public sector pay awards, which include a large number of our health service colleagues, highlight that there's an unresolved funding crisis in community pharmacy which needs urgent attention." "Four months into this financial year, there is as yet no clarity even on current arrangements." "After stepping up to tackle Covid and keep the wheels on the NHS, the sector deserves better than to be neglected in this way," Andrew opines.

Sobha Sharma Kandel wants community pharmacy teams up and down the country to be super responsive to emerging needs of their patients - by always being pro-active rather than reactive. "We know that every patient benefits from our proactive approaches - listening, asking questions, providing information and making clinical interventions when appropriate. "At a time when general practice is overstretched, community pharmacy must be relied upon as the frontline of the NHS when it comes to providing diagnosis, treatment and continuous care in our communities to promote health and wellbeing of our patients." Sobha believes Covid-19 has helped shift public perception of community pharmacies from being a place where one goes to collect a prescription to a hub where one can access a range of healthcare advice and services. "We are way more than just a shop where you can collect your medicines," she said, giving examples of how her interventions have helped reduce medication errors, prevent harm and subsequently reduce cost of care. She once saved a baby from getting overdosed with omeprazole when they had issues with gastroesophageal reflux. On another occasion, she managed a lady's high blood pressure by finding equivalent medications to a combination dose prescribed by her doctor in another country.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has initiated the process for the regional representative election for the North-East and Cumbria region after Mark Burdon's resignation from the committee earlier this year. The North-East and Cumbria region covers Community Pharmacy County Durham, Community Pharmacy Cumbria, Gateshead and South Tyneside LPC, North of Tyne LPC, Sunderland LPC and Tees LPC. PSNC said that Pharmacists who are independent chemists and members or officers of these LPCs are eligible to stand for election as a new regional representative. "An independent chemist is defined in the PSNC constitution as a chemist operating retail pharmacy businesses' from no more than nine premises in England from which NHS Pharmaceutical Services or Local Pharmaceutical Services are provided and a person who is not a member of the Association of Independent Multiple pharmacies (AIMp)," said PSNC. The following PSNC briefing sets out the election process and the actions required by those seeking to stand for election.

Two weeks prior to the closing of the hub and spoke consultation, issues around patient safety, costs and competition as well as practicalities such as what to do with uncollected medicines were discussed in a webinar on hub and spoke dispensing on Wednesday (May 26). The webinar was organised by Sigma Pharmaceuticals in association with the National Pharmacy Association (NPA). NPA director of corporate affairs Gareth Jones chaired the event and was joined by Sigma's Hatul Shah and Raj Haria as well as NPA vice chair Nick Kaye and NPA head of advice and support services Jasmine Shah. Kaye said: "There are still many 'unknown unknowns' with hub and spoke and the jury's still out on any potential benefits. I have lots of reservations about cost and it worries me how efficient this is for the business and the long term sustainability for the sector as a whole. Above all we need to think about the patient at the centre of all this and the potential confusion for them." Jasmine Shah felt patient safety was going to be the key in regards to whether the spoke and the hub would hold the ultimate responsibility and "who is going to take the accountability as far as patient care goes". She added: "It is most important that GPhC standards and NHS requirement are both met in identifying all the risks associated with the arrangement with hub and spoke and ensuring that (patient safety) measures are in place. Everything that needs to be looked at is by putting the patient at heart of the arrangement and seeing what is the safest way for them to receive care from both spoke and hub."

Alitam Group, the 100-plus pharmacy store consolidation, has appointed Bharti Patel, the former group executive director of Avicenna to its executive board. Patel, who was part of the leadership team at Avicenna until late 2021, brings with her a wealth of experience covering pharmaceuticals, multiple retail and independent pharmacy, homecare and NHS primary and secondary care. In her early career, she worked at Lloyds Pharmacy, where she rose from a prescription medicines buyer to director of procurement over a period of eight years. She is known in the industry for her strong leadership, commercial acumen and ability to create opportunities for innovation and strategic partnerships. Alitam founder and CEO Feisal Nahaboo said in a statement that Patel's appointment will further strengthen the group's ability to deliver its transformative multi-billion-pound 'Pharmacy of the Future' concept.

The Department of Health and Social Care has clarified that community pharmacists will not be among those allowed to issue sick notes, calling the service unsuitable to be provided over the counter. In response to a question from Pharmacy Business, a spokesperson for the department said that the policy change was "aimed at pharmacists working within general practices or hospital settings", adding: "The intention is that 'where' the fit note is issued will remain the same but 'who' issues it will change. The DHSC went on to explain that fit notes, known technically as 'Med3', were "not part of the NHS commissioned services" and therefore private providers, such as high street pharmacies, were unable to provide it under government provision. It added that since "fit notes should only be issued following a full assessment of a patient's fitness for work", it "would be an unsuitable service to be provided 'over the counter'.

The Company Chemists Association (CCA)'s 'Prospectus for community pharmacy' has revealed that community pharmacies can release over 42 million appointments from general practice every year. In its prospect, the association calculated that community pharmacies could reduce hospital readmissions by 65,000 and administer an additional 10m routine vaccines annually. The prospectus sets out bold ideas and proposals regarding the future of community pharmacy. The association said: "Community pharmacies already work collaboratively with the NHS to ensure that patients can access care easily and safely. Whilst the sector has evolved considerably in recent years, the CCA proposes that pharmacies could do even more to directly tackle key problems for patients." CCA is concerned that without immediate action pharmacy closures will become increasingly common. "Fewer pharmacies will considerably diminish access to vital medicines and services, with the greatest impact on those in deprived communities."

Levomepromazine 25mg/1ml solution for injection will remain unavailable until the week commencing March 7,2022, Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said in an update. While alternative medicines for use in palliative care remain available in ample supply to support an uplift in demand, the date supply resumption of Levomepromazine is yet to be confirmed. The DHSC has sent a copy of this medicine supply notification to all pharmacy NHS email addresses. It further informed primary care providers that prescription validation has been temporarily implemented at wholesaler level.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has urged pharmacy contractors to use Manage Your Service (MYS) portal only for all monthly FP34C submissions. To secure access to earlier advance payments on 11 April 2022, the committee has advised pharmacy contractors to submit their claims for NHS pharmaceutical services delivered in March 2022 no later than 5 April 2022. PSNC said: "The Manage Your Service (MYS) portal is now the ONLY route available to contractors for all monthly FP34C submissions. From March 2022, contractors will no longer receive the paper FP34C submission document through the post. However, the NHSBSA will continue to post out red separators for contractors to submit relevant forms each month.

Amid media speculations that a large pharmacy multiple was putting all its stores at risk of closure, PSNC supremo Janet Morrison said the sector was in crisis and in danger of a significant collapse. Addressing delegates via a video link at Sigma Pharmaceutical's 13th Annual Community Pharmacy Conference held last week (March 4 -9) in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, she said while "a lot of consolidation or sales" would continue, a lot of the smaller, independently-owned community pharmacies - which had to work harder and harder to make ends meet - were just "hanging on in there". "But I don't know how much longer people can go on," she said, adding that the risk of actual closure was rendering the remaining pharmacies so fragile that "they may not be able to pick up the slack of many thousands of patients" who would need repeat prescriptions. "The disruption is frightful and awful. We have got 53 per cent of the population on repeat prescriptions, so that matters." Her comment on the opening day of the conference was a sober reminder that the sector - which relies heavily on income from prescriptions - couldn't afford to "carry on with the current format of a contract and the current amount of money" it was paid to deliver numerous tasks which have been heaped on it to share the burden of a crippling NHS.

Two pharmacies in Rotherham are set to merge into one, if plans are approved by NHS England. Weldricks Pharmacy has applied to merge its two Swinton branches, on Church Street and the Crown Street Surgery. If approved, the branch on Church Street will be modernised, and additional consulting rooms will be added, while the Crown Street site will be closed. Rotherham Met Borough Council's health and wellbeing board are set to make a representation supporting the plans, and say that analysis by public health "outlines the very minimal impact that this change will have in terms of pharmacy access in the borough based on the service offer, opening hours and walking times to this branch and the main pharmacy." They say the current opening hours will remain the same, and there will be no disruption to services during the consolidation. A statement from Weldricks adds that the decision to merge is down to funding cuts, and the company could go out of business if operating costs are not reduced - 'despite having been a local, family-owned business for almost 100 years'.

The current structure of global incentives to develop new antibiotics is insufficient and requires urgent resolution revealed a new report 'Incentivising new antibiotics' by the Office of Health Economics (OHE). OHE analysis demonstrates that on a global level, it is estimated that an effective 10-year incentive would require £3.5bn ($4.2bn) to adequately cover the entire research and development process for a new antibiotic. The report considers how health systems in the UK and around the world can stimulate the research and development (R&D) of new antibiotics. In 2020, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and NHS England initiated an Antimicrobial Resistance pilot with the aim of incentivising pharmaceutical companies to develop new antibiotics by addressing the issues associated with reimbursement, which historically has deterred companies from pursuing AMR research.

A community pharmacy, Barton Pharmacy located in Woolacombe, Devon has been sold to a local pharmacist and its previous employee, Harminder Chaggar, announced Christie & Co. The business has been owned by Mr Osman Hamid for the last seven years and was brought to market to allow him to concentrate on his other business interests. Barton Pharmacy is dispensing an average of 2,440 items per month. It lies completely unopposed in the highly desirable North Devon coastal village of Woolacombe, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and is an ever-popular holiday destination which boasts 'Beach of the Year 2021' as voted for by The Sunday Times. Osman Hamid, previous owner of Barton Pharmacy, comments, "Owning this business for the last seven years has been an enjoyable experience, as we have had full support from the NHS as it has an attached LPS contract and receives an overwhelmingly generous OTC income which is more than the average pharmacy. The business has huge potential to grow and diversify into other avenues that are yet to be explored, and it is lovely to know that it has been passed onto a new owner operator that I trust will do well with the business moving forwards."

What will it take to get help from the government before an individual or sector breaks? Pharmacists raised questions after the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC)'s 2023 Pharmacy Pressures Survey confirmed the ongoing pressures and health issues faced by the pharmacies. Pharmacists are not all shocked by the PSNC's survey report as they feel the same as what has been reported related to their businesses and health. They hope the government listens and work with them to find resolutions. "We are bullied into a corner," said Salim Jetha Chairman, Avicenna. "Unlike other industries, we can't increase our prices. Most of the daily calls I get from Independents is about financial health of their business and any cost cutting would be detrimental to patient care. Urgent holistic review is required." Bristol pharmacist Ade Williams said: "The report is a dire indictment, and I would also warn, likely an underestimate of the extent and detrimental impact of the ongoings pressures and squeeze on Community pharmacies." "If the closest interface of the NHS to communities and patients is so distressed, what does that mean for those that need and depend on us? We are notoriously very stoic, so this is a warning light, which, taken with workforce pressures, market-exit activity, and other reports raising concern about wellbeing and stress, must beg the question; what will it take to get help before the sector and individuals break?" he questioned. The survey results don't surprise Kent-based community pharmacist Amish Patel. He said, "I have been feeling exactly what has been reported for far too long. I'm burnt out and would say beginning to suffer with my own health because of it. Now it's for PSNC to talk to government, and government to listen and work with us to find resolutions."

In a bid to bolster the educational experience for undergraduate pharmacy students across London, Kingston University has embarked on a groundbreaking project in collaboration with University College London and King's College London. This initiative, fueled by a substantial £1.5 million investment from National Health Services England (NHSE), aims to elevate the quality and consistency of pharmacy placements throughout the capital for new pharmacy entrants. The project is designed to address the evolving standards set forth by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GphC), ensuring that newly-trained pharmacists are well-prepared to meet the demands of their profession. By standardizing and expanding pharmacy placements, the three universities seek to provide students with a comprehensive and diverse range of "experiential learning opportunities".

Thorrun Govind, a former chair of the English Pharmacy Board of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, has joined Brabners' regulatory & professional conduct team. With nearly a decade of experience as a GPhC-registered pharmacist, Govind will provide guidance on regulatory and professional conduct issues. Govind's expertise extends to healthcare advisory and disputes involving NHS Trusts and social care organisations. She has been recognised as the 'Young Pharmacist of the Year' by Pharmacy Business Magazine and is a frequent commentator on public health and healthcare law for major television networks. Her appointment underscores Brabners' commitment to offering top-tier legal services to the healthcare industry.