The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has published a consultation to review the 'Professional standards for the reporting, learning, sharing, taking action
and review of incidents error reporting' in collaboration with Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK and Pharmacy Forum of Northern Ireland.
The consultation is open from 21 April 2023 until 2 June 2023 and are due to be published in early 2024.
All three professional leadership bodies are calling for contributions from anyone using the standards to ensure they are clear, current, relevant and fit for
purpose.
"The review affects all pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, trainees and members of the pharmacy team working in all sectors across the UK," RPS said.
"The standards may also be of interest to the public, people who use pharmacy and healthcare services, healthcare and professionals working with pharmacy teams.
A Company Chemists' Association (CCA) analysis has shown that 'Pharmacy First' service in England could free up 30m+ GP appointments each year.
It has urged the Government and NHS to be even 'bolder in their ambition and go further and faster'.
The recent 'Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care' announced a 'Pharmacy First' service for England, mirroring similar approaches in Scotland and
Wales.
The association has estimated that with the added capability to supply non-prescription medicines and prescribe additional prescription-only medicines, an ambitious
'Pharmacy First' service could free up 30m+ GP appointments annually.
Harnessing community pharmacies to deliver care for minor health conditions will effectively create 11,000 urgent care centres in England.
Phoenix UK has partnered with 2San Global Ltd, a diagnostic and digital tools company, to supply home testing kits to its 5,200 independent pharmacy members
through Numark and selected Rowlands Pharmacy branches nationwide. Both Numark and Rowlands Pharmacy are owned by Phoenix.
Numark will be the first UK wholesaler to supply 2San's home tests, granting members swift access to these screening products for essential health insights in
minutes, all at reasonable prices, the company said in a statement.
Numark will offer 10 essential tests to its 5,200 independent pharmacy members from August, while Rowlands Pharmacy will provide a selection of tests in over
380 branches beginning September. This collaboration aligns with Phoenix's goal of improving diagnostic accessibility and easing strain on the NHS.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has launched a new revised RPS Professional Standards for Hospital Pharmacy Services at its annual conference held on
Friday (11 November).
RPS developed the standards through an extensive consultation with the profession, multidisciplinary teams and patients. They are relevant for providers of pharmacy
services in acute, mental health, private, community service, prison, hospice and ambulance settings.
The revised Standards contain two brand new descriptors - research, audit and quality improvement, and inclusion and wellbeing. Updates have been made to the
supporting statements to ensure they reflect current practice and are fit for the future. A new assessment tool has been developed to support organisations either
self-assess or peer-assess against the Standards.
"For the first time the Standards apply UK wide, having gained support from Pharmacy Forum NI, alongside endorsement from The Association of Pharmacy Technicians
UK and other professional groups," RPS said.
The regulators have reduced the notice periods for change to supplementary opening hours for community pharmacy contractors from 1 October 2022.
Following the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC)'s discussions with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England as part of
Year 4 negotiations, it has been agreed that the required notice periods for changes to supplementary opening hours will reduce to five weeks.
Community pharmacy contractors who want to change their supplementary opening hours are required by their terms of service to notify NHS England.
"If a contractor wants to increase supplementary opening hours at the pharmacy, this can be done with no notice - but notification of the change must still be
given to NHS England," said PSNC.
"To decrease supplementary opening hours at the pharmacy, at least five weeks' notice must be given to NHS England prior to implementing the change."
Professor Harry McQuillan has said community pharmacists in the UK must change their focus from an 'accuracy of supply' to a 'safety of supply' model when it
comes to dealing with patients.
"The main take away message from tonight's lecture is for pharmacy professionals to really challenge themselves about whether they are focused on accuracy of supply
or safety of supply," he said at this year's UCL School of Pharmacy Lecture in London on Thursday, 15 June.
"For our community pharmacists it must be about safety, including prescribing, and ensuring patients and citizens get the maximum benefit from prescribed medicines.
"To deliver this, we need to invest in our teams - harness technology and always be willing to take the next step in a more clinical future."
The Chief Executive Office of Community Pharmacy Scotland, however, noted that at a time when the UK was grappling with an unprecedented national debt crisis
exacerbated by severe cost of living and spiraling inflation, community pharmacy will need to make a "compelling case" of where the priority should be in the sector.
Expanding on the financial woes of the country, he compared the current national debt of the UK, which stood at a staggering 270 percent of GDP in September 2022,
with the previous record-breaking national debt of 250 per cent at the end of WWII.
The Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) will be expanded to enable urgent and emergency care settings to refer patients to a community pharmacist
for a consultation for minor illness or urgent medicine supply from Monday (15 May), the DHSC and NHSE said.
The service builds on the progress made in GP referrals via the CPCS and hospital referrals under the Discharge Medicine Service. It was originally planned to launch
in March, and fee for this service will be the existing CPCS fee of £14, as per the agreement for both year 4 and year 5 of the Community Pharmacy Contractual
Framework (CPCF) 2019 to 2024 5-year deal.
In an update on the CPCF, published today (12 May), the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England (NHSE) has also committed to the 4 October 2023
launch date for the Tier 2 of the Pharmacy Contraception Service, subject to a positive evaluation of the pilot.
The Tier 1 of the service was launched on 24 April, delayed by over three months. This new service enables community pharmacists to provide ongoing management, via
a patient group direction (PGD), of routine oral contraception that was initiated in general practice or by a sexual health clinic. The fees for this service are as
follows: a fee for each consultation of £18; and a set-up fee of £900, paid in instalments.
The Tier 2 will "enable community pharmacists to also initiate oral contraception, via a PGD, and provide ongoing clinical checks and annual reviews," Alette Addison,
deputy director for pharmacy, dental and optical at the DHSC and Ali Sparke, director for dentistry, community pharmacy and optometry at the NHSE, said in a letter.
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 General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has developed two new resources- Keeping patients safe being open and honest and Pharmacy team toolkit - learning
from incidents, to help pharmacists and pharmacy technicians fulfil the duty of candour - the professional responsibility to be open and honest with patients if/when
something goes wrong.
The new resources bring together relevant existing policy, standards, and previous statements on the professional obligations of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians,
with respect to candour.
It also emphasises that the duty of candour is not an add on - it's a fundamental part of pharmacy professional practice.
The responsibility to be open and honest applies even in difficult or challenging times and it's essential that professionals do the right thing for patients, their
families and carers. Saying sorry meaningfully when things go wrong is vital for everyone involved.
Given the link with issues around liability and indemnity, the National Pharmacy Association and the Pharmacists' Defence Association - as leading providers of
professional indemnity - have also contributed to the new resources and highlighted the importance of openness and transparency in this context.
Community pharmacy teams are urged to share their views relating to the new NHS Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS).
"This will ensure that the tool supports the needs of pharmacy team members and their patients," said the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC).
BaRS is an interoperability standard for healthcare IT systems which should enable booking and referral information to be sent to or from care providers, such as
community pharmacies, quickly, safely and in a format useful to clinicians.
"The intentions are that the BaRS IT standard will eventually be available in all care settings. The way the standard could be used in pharmacies is currently being
considered, including the potential for use for referrals from NHS 111 to community pharmacy."
The BaRS team are conducting interviews (usually lasting 30-45 minutes) to hear more the current experiences and the future preferences regarding sending and
receiving referral messages.
Gisela Abbam today (March 14) officially succeeded Nigel Clarke as new chair of the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). She was appointed in mid-Feruary.
The council paid tribute to its outgoing chair for his major contribution to pharmacy regulation and his focus on patient safety for the past eight years on the role.
During his tenure Clarke has overseen significant changes to how the GPhC regulates pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacies to help drive improvements in
professional practice and protect patient safety.
Chief executive of the GPhC, Duncan Rudkin, said: "I would like to pay tribute to Nigel for everything he has done to support continuous improvement and assure the
quality and safety of pharmacy for the benefit of patients and the public.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has rejected Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England's proposal on price
concessions reform and relief measures to ease pressure on pharmacies.
The Committee called the proposal 'insufficient' to meet the sector's needs considering the impact of the current crisis, reflecting on the economic pressures
that accelerated through the autumn and winter.
The Ministers and other decision-makers have shown their interest in the potential role of community pharmacy, particularly in using a Pharmacy First approach
and making use of PGDs and the skills of independent prescribers.
But the Committee had made clear to them that without new money this is all a pipedream. "We need an urgent injection of funds into the sector, otherwise we will
continue to see a degradation of services and eventual collapse of the network. The Committee is clear that there is no further place for warm words while pharmacy
collapses," said PSNC.
The Committee reflected that the 5-year CPCF agreement had been based on working together to create the capacity and context necessary to deliver the shift towards
greater service delivery. Not only has that capacity-release not happened due to slow progress by Government, but pharmacies have also been burdened with these
additional, and insurmountable, challenges.
Margaret MacRury has stepped down from her role as superintendent director for the Rowlands Pharmacy, which has a community pharmacy network in England,Scotland and Wales with more than 450 branches.
MacRury, who served the role for a decade, will step down next month to focus on the pharmacy contract developments taking place in Scotland, Rowlands said in a statement.
She will start her new role in February 2022.
With MacRury leaving the position, Stephen Thomas, currently her deputy, will take up the role of superintendent for Rowlands. He has been with the multiple for nearly 18 years and has worked side-by-side with MacRury for the last decade.
MacRury stated: "I know Stephen will continue that commitment to protecting patients and promoting the pharmacy sector.
Community pharmacies saved nearly 20,000 lives up to autumn 2021 by vaccinating people against the Covid-19, the National Pharmacy Association said based on a National Audit Office (NAO) report released on Friday (February 25).
The report, having taken evidence from the NPA, highlighted that community pharmacies and GPs performed far beyond expectations in delivering the Covid-19 vaccine, as 71 per cent of jabs were administered by both healthcare providers till October-end, against an initial assumption of 56 per cent.
The report cited UK Health Security Agency figures, which estimated that the programme overall prevented up to 128,000 deaths and 262,000 hospitalisations by September 24 and September 19, respectively.
The estimated number is considerably higher, given the pivotal role played by pharmacies in this winter's phase of the vaccination programme, the NPA stated.
The NHS England and Improvement has announced the emergency provisions introduced during pandemic to provide flexible opening hours for pharmacy contractors end today.
The flexibilities were enacted in March 2020 when changes to the Pharmaceutical Services (Advanced and Enhanced Services and Emergency Declaration) Directions 2020 were made following a declaration of emergency at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Since March 2020, the flexibilities have permitted temporary opening hours and closures during a specified period due to a genuine Covid-19 related emergency. NHS
England and Improvement has advised pharmacy contractors that the emergency declaration will not be extended further and will expire on 31 March 2022.
Pharmacy contractors will therefore no longer have the option to close pharmacies within their agreed contracted hours with the NHS.
Nine in ten people surveyed by Ipsos on behalf on NHS positively rated the advice they received from their local pharmacies.
The results from Ipsos found that the vast majority of patients (91%) who had used a community pharmacy in the previous year for advice about medicines, a health
problem or injury, or what health service they should use said they received good advice.
The research comes as more than 11,000 pharmacies in England can now access training to spot signs of cancer as part of a new drive to catch tumours earlier when
they are easier to treat.
Thorrun Govind, Chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society English Pharmacy Board, said: "Community pharmacists are working exceptionally hard to make sure that the
public gets the right advice at the right time. This new data shows the public appreciate both the accessibility and quality of advice they receive from community
pharmacists.
"I am delighted that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society is working with the NHS to deliver professional development for community pharmacists to further enhance their
clinical consultation skills.
Now is the best time for community pharmacy to integrate its model of NHS representation and support to ensure better outcomes for contractors, said James Wood, director of Contractor & LPC Support, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC).
It is important for the sector to adapt to the new landscape and address challenges such as workforce, digital data, integration of pharmacy services, and medicines optimisation, he said during the first session of the sixth annual Pharmacy Business Conference held online on Tuesday, September 21.
Under the new system, every part of England will be covered by integrated care systems (ICSs) from April 2022. ICSs have been created to bring about big changes in how health and care services in England are planned, paid for and delivered. They are a key part of the direction of travel for the NHS as outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan.
Chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee Janet Morrison has said government ministers are looking at the future of community
pharmacy in England in a "bigger way" and have a vision to go "beyond the Scotland model".
"I think they believe they're going beyond the Scotland model," she said, in her closing keynote at the 7th Annual Pharmacy Business Conference held in London on
Sunday (May 14).
Giving her views on the latest government funding - worth £645 million - for community pharmacy, the head of pharmacy negotiator, added: "Their thinking is for the
future in a bigger and a more forward-thinking way."
She added it was for the first time that community pharmacy has been seen "as part of primary care in a really fundamental way that gives us hope for the future".
Morrison said the new funding uplift was effectively "for five quarters of activity," arguing that the common condition service won't start before December or early
in the New Year due to the time it would take to get the IT systems up and running to support the rollout.
Former superintendent pharmacist and National Pharmacy Association (NPA) director, Phil Galt, has been appointed the new UK managing director for pharmacy
software supplier Cegedim Rx.
The position was previously held by Adam Dennett, who resigned after a successful ten-year tenure to pursue a new career outside healthcare, the company said.
Cegedim Rx, the pharmacy entity of Cegedim Healthcare Solutions UK, announced the new appointment this month (April 5).
Tristan de Foucher, head of European operations for Cegedim Group, said: "Adam has been a force of nature in this business for the past 10 years. Under his
leadership, the team has continuously and successfully invested in and driven product innovation to stay ahead of the ever-changing demands placed upon community
pharmacy."
Galt has over 20 years of experience as a qualified pharmacist and a successful business leader. He has worked extensively in community pharmacy, focusing on
both care delivery and technology implementation.
Pharmacies across Northern Ireland are in financial turmoil, reporting that they are dispensing prescription medicines at a loss due to inadequate
reimbursement from the Department of Health (DoH).
This crisis has led to the closure of almost a dozen pharmacies over the past 18 months, with many others struggling to stay open.
Siobhan McNulty, who runs Melvin Pharmacy in Garrison, County Fermanagh, described the dire situation. "We're dispensing medicines at a loss," she said.
"The reimbursement rates don't match the cost of the drugs, and we're left to cover the gap."
McNulty relies on sales of non-pharmaceutical products to keep her business running.
