A pharmacy assistant has been jailed for three years and seven months for stealing £330,000 worth of diabetes-testing kits from his workplace.
Abdul Nargoliya stole the products while working as a pharmacy assistant at a Lloydspharmacy counter inside a Sainsbury's supermarket in Fosse Park, Leicester
where we was employed since 2012.
The 30-year-old from Woodboy Street in Leicester was sentenced on Friday (May 26) after pleading guilty at Leicester Crown Court "to theft by an employee and
concealing, transferring, converting criminal property".
According to police an internal investigation launched at the pharmacy branch in July 2018 revealed that more than 22,000 test kits had been ordered since January
2017.
Leicester Police said they identified Nargoliya as a suspect due to the time of the orders being placed matching up to his shift patterns. They arrested him in July
2018.
Orders for the products were placed by telephone and CCTV footage showed Nargoliya handling them.
It was noticed that during his shifts, the defendant would move the deliveries into a private consultation room and later leave with full carrier bags.
Community Pharmacy England (CPE) is aiming to reach an agreement with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England (NHSE) on negotiation
with regards to expanded services and payment model in the pharmacy sector.
Chief Executive Janet Morrison, said: "We are working at pace in negotiations with DHSC and NHSE. The process remains on track with the Government's original
timescale - i.e. aiming for agreement in July, with cross-government clearance later in July, and implementation from July through to September."
CPE is involved in working groups on service expansion of Hypertension Case-Finding and the Pharmacy Contraception Scheme and service design for the Common
Conditions Service; and are in in-depth negotiations on Payment models.
These discussions critically look at the balance between funding core capacity and activity payments, how the funding streams will be distributed and how CPE
will measure delivery and impact.
NHSE has been leading on the development of the PGD pathways for each of the 7 conditions, with external medical, pharmacy and other experts feeding into the
process - pharmacy owners from the Community Pharmacy England Committee have also been involved but the discussions are clinically led to ensure they comply with
NICE principles and concur with Antimicrobial Stewardship policy.
A community pharmacy contractor would be charged £25 if a paper prescription bundle is submitted late to the NHSBSA.
"A charge for processing of a late bundle would only apply if a contractor cannot provide evidence, where requested by the NHSBSA, that their bundle was submitted
using secure track and trace delivery no later than the 5th day of the following month in which supply was made," said the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating
Committee (PSNC).
"Where evidence is submitted, no administrative deduction will be made. If no evidence is provided within the required time, then an administrative deduction will
be made from the next Schedule of Payments. The deduction which will appear on schedules as 'Late Fee' under the section "Details of other amounts authorised"."
Since the introduction of an administrative charge for late bundle submissions, 16 contractors received a fine for submitting their March prescription bundles late.
Three leading healthcare bodies in Scotland have called for action to reduce the environmental impact caused by medicine prescribing.
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and Faculties in Scotland, Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the Royal College of General Practitioners Scotland have all
urged policymakers to enable a more sustainable approach to prescribing.
This includes prioritising the introduction of electronic prescribing across the NHS, introducing the requirement for an environmental impact in NHS medicines
procurement and improving the availability of data about the environmental impact of medicines.
"We call on Scottish government, including the chief medical officer, to enable the delivery of a realistic medicine approach to prescribing by developing a
supportive infrastructure for green social prescribing across Scotland," said the healthcare professionals in a joint statement.
They have called on the pharmaceutical industry to make information about the environmental impact of medicines readily available in a standardised data format.
Pharmacy technicians will soon be recognised as fully regulated healthcare professionals in North Ireland.
Work has begun to bring pharmacy technicians under statutory regulation by the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland, health minister Robin Swann has announced.
The public consultation was launched in March 2022 on a proposal to introduce statutory regulation of the Pharmacy Technician workforce in Northern Ireland.
The minister said: "This will be a key enabler to enhancing the contribution that pharmacy technicians can make to the delivery of healthcare across all settings.
It will allow the regulator to strengthen its role in protecting patients and promoting high standards, thereby enhancing the public's confidence and trust in
pharmacy practice."
He added: "While there are many practical issues to be worked through with stakeholders, and legislative change required, I have now instructed my Department's
officials to develop a detailed project plan to bring about the statutory regulation of pharmacy technicians by the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland".
Online pharmacy PillTime has taken a step to boost its prescription growth by implementing new Patient Medication Record (PMR) system Titan in its
state-of-the-art premises.
PillTime moved to new, expanded 26,000sqft premises in Cribbs Causeway on the edge of Bristol earlier this year, where it has also installed state-of-the-art
robotics in a bid to significantly enhance future productivity and capacity.
Teething problems over Easter weekend saw PillTime struggling to seamlessly integrate all the new systems and processes while physically moving premises which
affected service delivery and customer support.
However, CEO Leighton Humphreys was supported by Tariq Muhammad, CEO of Invatech Health, who is a former community pharmacist and has worked with independent
pharmacies around the UK as well as larger online businesses, to integrate Titan into their workflows.
Alongside integration work, Muhammad and his team supported PillTime with necessary design, governance and pharmacy expertise as the company struggled to meet its
usual high standards for dispensing medicines to patients.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) England director, Ravi Sharma, has resigned after four years on the job.
He will be leaving the RPS in October to join Luton and Dunstable University Hospital, part of the Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust group, as head of
pharmacy.
RPS will be commencing the recruitment of a new director for England shortly and in the interim Ravi will be working with Paul Bennett, the RPS CEO, to help in
delivery of key objectives and in the appointment of his successor.
Paul commented: "Ravi has made a significant contribution to the organisation during his time with us. His drive and enthusiasm for advancing the recognition of
the role of the Society itself and of pharmacists and professional practice is probably best reflected by his desire to ensure a real focus on personalised medicines
and his work on equality and diversity, workforce wellbeing, and most recently the development of a new vision for pharmacy in England.
Over the last few years, we've seen the aftermath of Covid-19, with the demand for consumer health products being unprecedented and unpredictable, placing
pressure on supply chains and labour market. In turn, the industry has experienced acute shortages across the healthcare sector, placing huge pressure on
pharmacists, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.
Europe has an estimated shortage of around 50,000 public-sector doctors[1], which is set to increase in the coming years. While this shortage stems from several
complex problems, there is a hidden force that could play a key part in helping to alleviate this burden. That force is the potential of self-care.
Encouragingly, last month the UK government recognised the unique role that self-care can play through the introduction of its Delivery plan for recovering access
to primary care. Through this, it has pledged to empower patients to manage their own health through several commitments, including improving accessibility to
online tools and reclassifying medicines to make formerly prescribed options available over the counter.
Starting from January 2024, it will be compulsory for medicine suppliers in the NHS supply chain in England to submit an Evergreen Sustainable Supplier
Assessment each year.
Suppliers who fail to submit the sustainability assessment will not be placed on medicines contracts, said NHS England.
The NHS has taken this move as part of its ambition to reach carbon net zero by 2045.
The Evergreen Sustainable Supplier Assessment is a self-assessment and reporting tool for suppliers to share sustainability information with the NHS.
Chris McAleer, medicines net zero project delivery manager at NHS England, announced this new rule at the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists' Procurement and
Distribution Interest Group Autumn Symposium held in Birmingham on 2 November 2023.
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.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has secured a contract with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to deliver a suite of e-learning modules to help pharmacy professionals "become more research active".
The new online resources - due to be launched next summer - are aimed at pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who may not have followed an academic career path or have had little or no experience of research delivery. The e-learning package will allow them to gain new skills so they feel more confident to engage with research and research opportunities.
Nine modules are being developed covering how to transform ideas into a research project, find and evaluate evidence and choose the appropriate research methods
whilst learning how to apply for research funding and deal with governance issues and publication.
Following intermittent shortages during the holiday period and amid continued high level of demand for lateral flow tests (LFT) in pharmacies, the industry has voiced concerns over supplies.
Royal Pharmaceutical Society in England chair Thorrun Govind recently gave numerous media interviews over the issue, supporting pharmacists and reassuring the public.
She said it is 'frustrating' for pharmacy teams who are unable to access enough test kits to meet the growing demand and highlighted that placing all supplies with a
single distributor as a key issue.
Many in the sector have raised questions about the government's strategy for LFT distribution after it emerged that the sole distributor to pharmacies closed for four
days shortly after receiving 2.5 million tests.
Alliance Healthcare, from whom pharmacies receive LFTs, reportedly took delivery of the tests on Christmas Eve and then shut.
As an unprecedented demand for Lateral Flow Device (LFD) test kits continues through the Pharmacy Collect service, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is planning to distribute 10.5 million tests per week via Alliance Healthcare this month.
By the end of this week (January 8), the UKHSA aims to distribute more than 8 million tests to Alliance Healthcare - sole distributor to pharmacies.
The announcement comes after many in the pharmacy sector voiced concerns over shortage of test kits. Earlier this week, it emerged that Alliance Healthcare closed for four days shortly after receiving around 2.5 million tests on Christmas Eve.
Meanwhile, the UKHSA indicated that Alliance Healthcare has been delivering 86 per cent of its orders within 24 hours of the pharmacy order, nearly half of that on the same day.
Besides, a plan to switch on a Parcel Force delivery contingency is being finalised by UKHSA, which would enable supply of a further 3.5 million test kits.
American biotechnology company Novavax said on Monday (February 28) it would pursue full approval of its Covid-19 vaccine in the second half of this year and forecast total revenue of between $4 billion and $5 billion for 2022.
"We expect to gain additional authorizations where we have already filed, including in the US. We will pursue full approval of our vaccine including filing our BLA (biologics license application), in the second half of 2022," CEO Stanley Erck said during a post-earnings call.
Novavax late last month filed for emergency use authorization of the shot in U.S. adults, a much-awaited step following months of struggles with development and
manufacturing problems.
Novavax said it has completed delivery of around nine million vaccine doses to Indonesia, 6 million to Australia and two million to South Korea and expects to supply 69 million doses to Europe in the first half of this year.
The NHS is facing a range of long term challenges which needs to be countered with prevention, enhance personalised care and sustainable performance, health and social care secretary Sajid Javid said on Tuesday (March 8).
In his speech on healthcare reform at the Royal College of Physicians in London, he said: "We face some long-term challenges: how to keep the NHS focused on delivery while futureproofing it for changing demographics and disease; how to meet rising patient expectations and address the injustices of widespread disparities; and how to deal with an unsustainable financial trajectory while backing the brilliant people who work in health and care."
Javid emphasised on three key points for healthcare reform - prevention, personalisation and performance.
He said, prevention is not just about building a 'national hospital service' but a true 'National Health Service'.
To curb the supply issue of HRT medicine, the government has taken a further action by issuing SSPs for Oestrogel, Ovestin cream, Lenzetto transdermal spray and Sandrena gel sachets - with appropriate alternatives.
The move aims to allow community pharmacists to supply specified alternatives to the prescribed HRT products without needing to seek authorisation from the clinician
who has prescribed the medicine.
The regulator said that the availability of Premique Low Dose has impoved 'thanks to SSPs issued on 29 April to restrict dispensing for Oestrogel, Ovestin and Premique Low Dose to three months' supply'.
"Since these measures were implemented, further deliveries of all three products have been made, with Premique Low Dose returning to good availability this week. The manufacturers of Oestrogel and Ovestin, as well as suppliers of alternative HRT products, are taking action to increase UK supply."
It added, "SSPs restricting prescriptions to a maximum of three months' supply will also be issued for substitute products, as a precautionary measure to ensure the supply of those substitutes is maintained."
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.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has called on employers, governments and NHS organisations to provide pharmacists with regular protected learning
time (PLT) within working hours to develop their skills in clinical delivery, education, research and leadership.
RPS workforce wellbeing survey showed an average 42 per cent of pharmacists were not given any PLT, a figure which rose to 55 per cent in community pharmacy. Most
were unable to engage in professional development activities as part of their working day because of their responsibility to deliver frontline clinical services to
patients.
This means learning is often undertaken outside of working hours, increasing pressure on individuals and impacting their work/life balance.
The survey showed that 48 per cent of respondents identified a lack of PLT as negatively affecting their mental health and wellbeing and that 88 per cent were at
high risk of burnout.
PLT improves the quality of patient care through professional practice and reflection, helping to develop insights, maintain and refine care standards and increase
confidence. It facilitates continuous professional development (CPD), ensuring that skills and knowledge are up to date.
The new 'How to Involve and Engage Patients on Digital Health Tech Innovation' learning module has been created specifically to support the development and
delivery of patient-centric technologies, at a time of critical digital transformation in the NHS.
The foundation level module will be freely available at www.orcha-digitalhealthacademy.com and on the Health Education England NHS Learning Hub (learninghub.nhs.uk).
No training previously exists on conducting effective patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE), leading to wasted resource on unsuitable technologies
at a time when the healthcare system simply cannot afford it. The module aims to educate innovators who are creating new technology, and the clinicians who are
prescribing these solutions. Crucially, the module also provides valuable support to the 500 NHS clinicians who are on the Clinical Entrepreneur Programme.
The module is an introduction to the first evidence-based framework for PPIE, launched by the University of Plymouth, the AHSN Network (the national voice of the
15 academic health science networks in England) and Boehringer Ingelheim UK & Ireland. It helps to fast-track learning for the EnACT principles described in the
framework, outlining how to involve patients in product innovation and critical issues such as data privacy, intellectual property, inclusivity, reimbursement,
useability, and recruitment of patients.
The new Flat Fee payment to roll out in April 2023 to all pharmacy contractors who dispense at least 101 items a month, up to a national total of £70m on an
annual basis.
"The value of the Flat Fee payment has now been determined at £533 per month and will be introduced in the April 2023 Drug Tariff," said the Pharmaceutical Services
Negotiating Committee (PSNC).
"As with all payments, the Flat Fee payments are subject to change throughout the year depending on the overall level of funding delivery to Community Pharmacies.
This will be carefully monitored by PSNC and DHSC, and any funding changes will be communicated to pharmacy contractors as soon as they are known," said PSNC.
