Group items tagged

The Department of Health in Northern Ireland has advised pharmacies to continue providing rota services on Easter after learning that many pharmacies are unwilling to provide the services on Easter holidays. "It is extremely regrettable that community pharmacy representatives have advised that access to rota pharmacies in some parts of Northern Ireland will be reduced over the Easter holidays," department said. They have also stated that despite a commitment of recurrent investment, support for new patients assessed by Trusts as requiring blister packs may be restricted. These actions have the potential to impact on patients and other parts of the Health and Social Care system. The department has also called the CPNI's demand to increase the funding up to 50 per cent in the sector "unrealistic" in the current financial climate. It said: "Financial pressures across the entire NI public sector are severe with an extremely challenging health budget anticipated for 2023/24." "The Department is therefore facing a significant funding gap just to maintain existing services and the whole Health and Social Care system is an extremely unpredictable and fragile position. The core funding envelope available to community pharmacies in NI has increased by 16% over the past three years."

The aging process can bring with it physical, emotional, and financial changes that can impact elderly parents. As children of aging parents, it is important to be aware of their changing needs and help them adjust to these changes. With the right support, elderly parents can maintain a high quality of life in their senior years. Here are some suggestions on how to help older parents. 1. NURSING SERVICES Nursing services can help aging parents manage their physical needs and provide peace of mind for them and their families. They can help with personal care, assist with medication management, and provide guidance on diet and exercise. Additionally, getting home care nursing services can also provide elderly parents with a sense of companionship and reduce their risk of social isolation. If your parent is in need of nursing services, be sure to research options in your area and look for an experienced provider who will treat them with respect. It's also a good idea to visit them regularly and check in with the nurse to ensure that your parent is receiving quality care

Community pharmacy chain Jardines Pharmacy has partnered with patient relationship management platform Charac to launch a new app designed to digitalise its services, enhance operational efficiency, and elevate customer satisfaction. The app allows patients to order repeat prescriptions, access medicine home delivery and book consultations with their pharmacist all in one place, enabling faster pharmacist-to-patient care. By incorporating Charac's platform into its business, Jardines is able to boost prescription dispensing efficiency, helping reducing wait times for patients. Additionally, its delivery feature enables patients to track their orders directly through the app, thereby streamlining the overall patient experience. The app also minimises administrative and manual tasks for pharmacists, giving them more time to focus on helping patients and delivering the outstanding customer service. Patients of Jardines can also use the app to book appointments digitally for Pharmacy First consultations, blood pressure checks, earwax removal, travel vaccinations, and emergency contraception services. Santosh Sahu, Founder and CEO of Charac, said: "We are pleased to support Jardines Pharmacy and its patients across England. Our mission is to ensure that community pharmacies are empowered to digitalise, making care easier and more accessible for patients.

Leading health and beauty retailer Superdrug on Monday announced that it has selected on-demand delivery network Gophr to provide its pharmacy delivery service, following a rigorous Request for Information (RFI) process. This means Gophr will be responsible for delivering prescriptions across the UK to people who choose Superdrug to provide their medication. Superdrug's decision to choose Gophr was influenced significantly by the latter's strong Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), its adept ability to track and trace all home deliveries digitally from store to door, and its commitment to offering a best-in-class doorstep experience. According to the retailer, multiple layers of protection are implemented during delivery to uphold standards, ensuring that prescription medicines are handed directly to the intended recipients. Graham Smith, strategic account director at Gophr, highlighted the growing importance of pharmaceutical delivery, especially as pharmacists are now able to provide even more services under Pharmacy First scheme.

Lo's Pharmacy, a Yorkshire-based pharmacy chain is adopting a new approach to hub and spoke in a first of a kind model to be used in the UK. The pharmacy will centralise its repeat prescription dispensing service for original packs with the support of its medication wholesaler. The independent group, which has 25 NHS community pharmacies across Yorkshire, will install Centred Solution's Automated FLOWRx Hub product at its central dispensing facility in Wath-Upon-Dearne, South Yorkshire. But unlike other FLOWRx customers, who pick packs from a robotic dispensing system or internal warehouse, Lo's Pharmacy will receive patient-specific flow totes directly from their wholesaler which can then be processed by their hub. This workflow has not been used anywhere else in the country until now and it is a revolutionary approach to hub and spoke dispensing, showing what can be achieved when key players decide to collaborate. It further demonstrates that there are range of variations of hub and spoke models available and accessible to independent and multiple community pharmacies across the UK.

Recently, the English Health Secretary has talked about introducing a 'Pharmacy First' model similar to that which exists in Scotland. This would be a win-win outcome providing people with better access to essential healthcare support, advice and treatment whilst relieving strain on other parts of the NHS, not least GPs and A&E. It is a no-brainer and yet despite a few media headlines there are still no firm proposals on the table to make this a reality. It surely cannot be right that you can receive a broad range of patient care services in Scotland which are not available in England. It works well in Scotland, Wales is keen to develop more pharmacy-based services and Northern Ireland, leaving aside the current funding dispute, has had a minor ailments service for many years. If the English Health Secretary is sincere in his interest in adopting an English version of the Scottish model, then there are critical aspects he needs to consider. Firstly, start with the patient journey through the healthcare ecosystem from illness prevention through to long-term condition management. What is the role of community pharmacy and how do we guide people to seek support from the most appropriate healthcare professional? What is the vision for community pharmacy delivering patient care in the next decade? The lesson from Scotland is that the government needs to sit down with the sector and map that out together. There are no quick fix overnight solutions. This needs to be a long-term commitment backed by adequate funding. Supervision regulations need to change and there needs to be a thought through workforce strategy which avoids community pharmacy shortages as that does nothing to deliver improved patient outcomes.

The results of the Community Pharmacy IT Group's (CP ITG's) IT arrangements survey revealed that 83 per cent of the respondents support the goal of going paperless. The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) asked community pharmacy teams to complete the survey between late 2021 and October 2022. The survey was designed to gather information on frontline pharmacy teams' perspectives about community pharmacy IT and their pharmacies' IT arrangements. It was found that more than half of pharmacies experience at least one IT outage per month (lasting at least one hour). Over 40% reported poor mobile phone signal and limited internet connectivity options at their pharmacy. 80% agreed that mobile devices would help working within pharmacy, but most reported no laptop and no tablet device available for use in the pharmacy

Lightweight Transport Chair Light and easily moved Strong steel frame, Ideal for traveling For indoors and outdoor use, with folding backrest, back upholstery, padded flip up desk style arms Pocket pouch on back of chair With parking brakes Detachable footrests 8" solid tyres Weight capacity 120kgs Weight of chair 11.5kg . Lightweight Folding Wheelchairs Lightweight Folding Wheelchairs are highly adjustable to meet the user's changing needs. Modular design and interchangeable frame components ensure the chair will continue fitting the rider correctly, while their folding design provides added convenience and ease of transportation.Lightweight Wheelchair can be stored easily as you simply fold up so that the size is compact (less than a 3rd of the normal size!). This also makes them very portable wheelchairs and with the lightweight can be placed in the boot of a car, carried onto a train or used to take abroad without the problems of using a normal manual wheelchair. Features: folding wheelchairs Strong aluminum frame in grey colour Wheels have solid 8 inch tyres Arms flip up into place with padded rests Travel bag included Wheelchair Transportation Wheelchair Transportation is a private provider of non-emergency medical transportation based in Hancock. It provides both local and long-distance (Marshfield and Mayo Clinic, among others) service to handicapped and non-handicapped customers. Wheelchair Transportation also provides direct services to institutions such as the Medical Care Facility and Cypress Manor nursing home.Paratransit vehicles available for transporting the elderly (seniors) and passengers with a disability range from wheelchair accessible taxi's to modified vans and minibuses with ramps, lifts, and hoists. Wheelchair Transportation provides both public and private disability transport services are professional drivers who are trained to handle people with disabilities and their needs who use their service.

The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has issued an advisory information to community pharmacy contractors about Paxlovid antiviral treatment for non-hospitalised patients. "Patients will be assessed to see if they meet the criteria for inclusion and will need careful checking to see if Paxlovid therapy is safe due to the significant number of drug interactions. Assessment and prescribing are provided via dedicated services with dispensing and supply arranged by the central supply service or via participating community pharmacies," said the PDA. Every pharmacist can support this service by making themselves familiar with the service set up in their area. This is so that they can provide advice and signpost to healthcare colleagues and patients. Pharmacists working in general practice may also be able to help with identifying newly diagnosed highest risk patients. Whilst most of this group should have already been identified and contacted, no system is entirely foolproof. The PDA's advisory note provides information around indemnity and links to information about the prescribing and administration of Paxlovid since it is being provided under a temporary authorisation, and is subject to numerous drug-drug interactions, and is a recommended first-line treatment.

The GP Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (GP CPCS) is also delivering 'unexpected' insights to help transform patient care and facilitate integrated working between pharmacists and GPs across Greater Manchester. Since April 2021, almost 14,000 appointments have been referred using the GP CPCS across the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership - a figure that is growing as its success gathers pace and they continue to support practices to increase referral activity. Joshua Nolan, a pharmacist at Internet Pharmacy in Heywood, one of the first in the area to join the referral service, said: "The number of patients we're seeing from GP CPCS has been building consistently month-on-month. On average we see around 50 patients, but recently we recorded 53 in just one week." The pharmacist, who has been practising for six years and is also an independent prescriber, believes the GP CPCS has helped bring about more awareness to the clinical services community pharmacy can offer.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has launched a four point plan at its parliamentary drop-in event for MPs and peers hosted on Tuesday (15 November). The event lasted for two hours, during which MPs had the opportunity to drop-in and have their blood pressure measured by pharmacists with experience of working on the front-line and were briefed on the urgent need for action to address the pressures on the sector. Outline of the four-point plan: Resolve the funding squeeze: Community pharmacy needs an immediate funding uplift to prevent large-scale pharmacy closures, as well as emergency business relief to get through this winter. Tackle regulatory and other burdens: Pharmacies must be protected from medicines market shocks, supported to help them weather the workforce crisis, helped to free up capacity and freed from red tape that does not enhance patient care. Help pharmacies to expand their role in primary care: Pharmacies could do more to support the delivery of primary care for example through offering clinical services for long-term conditions - like hypertension, diabetes and respiratory disease, supporting people to adopt healthier lifestyles and prevent the development of long-term conditions, medicines optimisation, and a much wider variety of NHS vaccinations.

From July 2022, Manage Your Services (MYS) portal will be the only route available for pharmacy contactors to submit all new prescription returns/referred back items and disallowed items, reminded the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC). Contractors will be able to view and submit the required information for all these items only through the MYS portal. The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) will send out a notification email from July (for the dispensing month of June) to the pharmacy NHSmail account if any new referred back or disallowed items have been generated for the contractor to complete on their MYS account. "Contractors can view any referred back items for completion by checking the 'Unpaid items' tab on MYS landing page," PSNC. "It is important to note that prescription returns/referred back items via MYS are only held in the system for a period of 18 months from the date they are first sent to the pharmacy for action; if contractors have not completed and returned any outstanding referred backs before this deadline has passed, the referred back items will be deleted from system."

Royal Pharmaceutical Society in England and the Royal College of General Practitioners have published recommendations for the roll-out and success of the GP Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (GP CPCS). These recommendations follow a workshop with stakeholders from pharmacy, general practice and representative bodies, examining ways to maximise the potential of the service and meet growing demand on the health service. The workshop report made five recommendations: The NHS England and Improvement should provide additional investment in local system support and resources to drive the CPCS implementation and uptake between general practice and community pharmacy. National representative bodies should work with NHS E&I to develop national and local engagement and streamline communication plans for CPCS referral pathway. Focus on expanding the role of community pharmacists in the management of minor illness. Evaluation of CPCS service and its impacts on general practice workload, patient outcomes and health inequalities.

NHS moves a step ahead towards its efforts to address covid-19 backlogs by opening a new 'planned care' hospital in Berkshire dedicated to non-emergency treatment. Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot, part of Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, will focus on cutting waits for routine care with staff prioritising patients who have been waiting longest, including for orthopaedic and ophthalmology services. The hospital houses six operating theatres, 48 inpatient beds and 22 day-case cubicles and provides surgical, diagnostic and outpatient care, and will treat patients across Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey. There will also be a range of outpatient services under the same roof including gynaecology, urology and cardiology services. These will be supported by services offering patients endoscopy, physiotherapy, phlebotomy and radiology checks and treatments.

In a compelling case for expanding the role of community pharmacies in the UK's vaccination efforts, a new report by a major think-tank has called on NHS England to designate all adult vaccinations as 'advanced services' under the next Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF). Published in July this year, the report by Reform discusses the power of prevention and highlights the need to boost vaccine uptakes for better patient outcomes. Calling for the NHSE to allow the 'advanced services' to be routinely delivered by community pharmacies, the report highlights the proven capacity of community pharmacists to reach a wide demographic, particularly in underserved areas. It also emphasises on the strategic advantage of utilising community pharmacies which often have more flexible hours and remain open during the evenings and weekends, making them highly accessible to the public.

In the competitive landscape of healthcare, strategic alliances can be a game-changer. Dr. Dupe, a General Practitioner at Christchurch Clinics, and Baba, a Pharmacist at Christchurch Pharmacy, married for 24-years cultivate their synergy through mental wellbeing walks. Their recent 24 kilometres fundraising walk to support a local hospice - Farleigh Hospice, is one of such. Having met Dupe first in 1994, first as interns at a teaching hospital, now married, the couple offer a comprehensive range of services, including pharmacy, private clinics, homecare services as proprietors of Christchurch Health-centre in Braintree. gp; pharmacist; mental wellbeing walks, healthcare Dupe and Baba in their clinic Dr. Dupe and Pharmacist Baba Akomolafe in their clinic, demonstrating their synergy and dedication to patient care. United by faith, a love for healthcare, and a shared commitment to service the community, their 'Mental Wealth Management' as they call it comprises of daily morning walks covering a distance of six kilometres.

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting reiterated his commitment to reducing NHS waiting lists during his visit to Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust's Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot on Friday. Streeting toured the Berkshire hospital, which is helping tackle backlogs of planned operations with dedicated surgical services, thereby cutting local waiting lists. The health secretary spoke to staff and patients at the hospital before meeting regional health representatives to discuss the issues facing services at a town hall event. His visit follows his recent call for an independent investigation into the NHS, pledging to be honest about the state of the health service and serious about fixing it. "The NHS is broken. Millions of patients are waiting too long for treatment, often in pain and discomfort," Streeting said.

The National Pharmacy Association has published a medium-term prospectus for the development of pharmacy services, calling it a challenge to old ways of thinking and an opportunity to redefine the sector's role in the NHS. It follows months of dialogue with NPA members about what a clinical future could look like for the sector. The document - Making Changes Meeting Needs - will be shared with the King's Fund and Nuffield Trust who are currently working on a new vision for the future on behalf of Community Pharmacy England. NPA chair, Nick Kaye, said: "Building out from the existing portfolio of services, there are some major opportunities within this decade, encompassing prevention, medicines optimisation, long term medical conditions and urgent care.

The leading pharmacy bodies have come together to launch the 'Save Our Pharmacies' campaign which highlights the pressure and untapped potential of the sector. Pharmacy bodies- Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp), Company Chemists' Association (CCA), National Pharmacy Association (NPA) and Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) have agreed to work together on a programme of activities to lobby for fair NHS funding for pharmacies in England, including co-ordinating efforts to mobilise public support. The campaign will focus on highlighting both the pressures that pharmacies are under and the huge untapped potential of the sector - including to offer a Pharmacy First service - if appropriate resourcing is made available. Mark Lyonette, NPA Chief executive, said: "Together we will be cranking up the noise to persuade Government and NHS to make the right choices and back the community pharmacy sector with decent funding. Maintaining patient and public support is critical to our campaigning success, so this will be a key focus in the months ahead. Our joint message is very clear: pharmacies can help get the NHS back on its feet, but not while the sector itself is on its knees." The pharmacy bodies will develop shared resources for effective parliamentary lobbying and mobilising public opinion, in the face of chronic underfunding that threatens further pharmacy closures. They will also work hard to show off the value of pharmacy and to continue pushing for a fully funded Pharmacy First service.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has notified that it is now mandatory to attend face-to-face training for both injection technique and basic life support training periodically for pharmacists and other vaccinators providing the annual flu vaccination service. "Community pharmacy contractors are required to demonstrate that all vaccinators, including pharmacists, providing the flu vaccination service in their pharmacy have the skills needed to do so," said PSNC. Prior to this change, pharmacists and other vaccinators needed to undertake a refresher face-to-face training for both injection technique and basic life support, including administration of adrenaline, every three years. Vaccinator needs to evidence competence PSNC said: "Contractors and vaccinators will now need to consider when it would be appropriate to attend refresher training or if ongoing competence of an individual vaccinator can be evidenced, without the need for face-to-face training. "An individual's continued competence may be influenced by their prior experience vaccinating patients, including the overall number of vaccines administered and the regularity with which they administer vaccines."