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The full-time equivalent community pharmacy workforce saw a 6 per cent decline in a year, while the overall number of pharmacists remains nearly constant, according to NHS England's Community Pharmacy Workforce Survey 2022. However, vacancy rates among pharmacists rose 16 percent, suggesting an increased reliance on locum pharmacists who, on average, work fewer hours, the data revealed. According to NHSE, the mandated survey released (Aug. 3) achieved a 95 per cent completion rate among pharmacy contractors, marking a substantial increase compared to only 47 per cent in the previous year. The survey results indicate a shift in working patterns within community pharmacy, with locum pharmacists being utilised more frequently as part of the staffing model. The survey revealed a 6 per cent decrease in the community pharmacy workforce across all roles combined. The number of full-time equivalent pharmacists working in community pharmacy decreased by 2,411, from 20,255 in 2021 to 17,844 in 2022, the survey found. The employed pharmacists decreased by 16 per cent from 12,774 in 2021 to 10,943 in 2022, while locum pharmacists increased by 26 per cent from 4,297 in 2021 to 5,477 in 2022, NHSE said.

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."

Community pharmacies in England will have to go through a clinical audit focusing on valproate, following an agreement reached between the PSNC and NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I). The audit, a part of NHS contractual requirements, aims to reduce the potential harm caused by taking valproate during pregnancy. The 2021/22 audit will be based on the Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) audit, allowing contractors to close the cycle by re-auditing their practice. NHSE&I recently shared the results of the PQS 2019/20 valproate audit. Around 5.6 per cent of the 12,068 girls or women of childbearing potential who participated in the audit said they were not advised in line with the MHRA Drug Safety Update 2018 relating to the potential impact on an unborn child.

Despite a 13 per cent increase from last year, less than a quarter (21%) of pharmacy teams recommend Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs) as a first line of treatment for frequent heartburn. There has been a 4% decrease in pharmacy teams considering 'frequent heartburn' as a condition that occurs more than once a week 8-in-10 said a larger pack size would be useful to their patients who suffer from frequent heartburn. Haleon, formerly part of GSK, has recently commissioned research to better understand how pharmacy teams help patients to treat frequent heartburn. Comparing with data captured last year, there has been a been a +13% increase in the number of pharmacy teams recommending Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs) (21% in 2022 vs 8% in 2021). Nexium Control, the UK's number one heartburn product for 24-hour protection, aims to use this research to provide better support for pharmacists and their teams and encourage the recommendation of PPIs, where appropriate for frequent heartburn, over other heartburn remedies.

Community pharmacy contractors eligible under the revised Pharmacy Access Scheme (PhAS) will receive their first of the new monthly payments with the January reconciliation payment due on April 1, 2022. Details of the revised version of the PhAS that commenced from January 1, was published in August 2021, with contractors receiving letters from the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) indicating their eligibility in the Autumn, PSNC said in an update. Payments under the scheme are dependent on registration on NHSBSA's Manage Your Service (MYS) portal to provide the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service(CPCS). Meanwhile, the review application window is now open for contractors, which would enable the NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) to correct inaccuracies related to a pharmacy's distance criteria/calculation.

Community pharmacy is at the heart of one of the most ambitious clinical trials ever undertaken by the UK's primary care network, says senior academic pharmacist Professor Mahendra Patel. The PANORAMIC trial has been designed to rapidly evaluate several antiviral treatments over time that could help people at high risk of Covid-19 recover sooner, prevent the need for hospital admission and so ease the burden on the NHS. The Platform Adaptive trial of NOvel antiviRals for eArly treatMent of Covid-19 In the Community (PANORAMIC) is a national priority trial led by Oxford University's Primary Care Clinical Trials Unit. Lead investigators say the study will enable early and rapid testing of novel antiviral agents and help repurpose existing drugs against Covid-19. As soon as the trial is set up for delivery, it will be open to eligible participants from across the UK. Prof Patel, a key member of the trial's core team, said: "I'm really excited with this news and also by the prospect that there is a huge potential for pharmacy teams to help play a vital role in supporting this highly ambitious trial, as they have with the PRINCIPLE trial, now the world's largest community based clinical trial for Covid19."

Indian authorities have cancelled or suspended licences of some domestic drug companies as part of action taken against 76 pharmaceutical firms this month for selling adulterated or fake products, a government source said on Thursday. India is known as the 'pharmacy of the world' and its pharmaceuticals exports have more than doubled over the past decade to $24.5 billion in 2021-22. But that image has been dented by the death of at least 70 children in Gambia and 19 children in Uzbekistan in Uzbekistan last year linked to drugs made by India-based pharmaceutical companies. Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya confirmed a crackdown but did not give details of companies against which action had been taken. "There are more than 10,500 pharma companies in the country. Companies who make spurious medicine will not be spared," Mandaviya told reporters at an event. Licences of some Indian drug companies have been cancelled, some were suspended while others have been put on notice during the past 15 days, the source, who had direct knowledge of the matter, told Reuters news agency.

Dr Amanda Doyle has been appointed as NHS England as director of primary and community care. Prior to her new role, Amanda had joined NHS England and NHS Improvement as North West Regional Director on 2 August 2021 and previously she was the Chief Clinical Officer for West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Blackpool CCG and Fylde and Wyre CCG. Amanda was also the Integrated Care System Lead for Lancashire and South Cumbria, leading a large health and care transformation programme across the patch. She has been a GP for more than 20 years, practising in a large practice in a deprived area of Blackpool, which, in addition to primary medical services, provides a range of urgent care services for patients across the Fylde Coast. Amanda was the Co-Chair of NHS Clinical Commissioners from 2013 to 2018. She was Senior Responsible Officer for the primary care component of the Long Term Plan and was involved in the leadership of the health inequalities, prevention and personalisation elements.

The government has launched a consultation into radically changing the Statutory Scheme for branded medicines (known as the Statutory Scheme). The consultation comes as delicate negotiations for replacing the alternative Voluntary Scheme are underway, potentially undermining these talks, while also further damaging industry confidence in the UK as a viable place to research, launch and supply medicine. The government proposals seek to hold average revenue clawback rates under the Statutory Scheme at historic highs of between 21-27%, compared to the pre-pandemic averages of 9.4% for the Statutory Scheme (2019-2021), and 6.88% for the Voluntary Scheme (2014-2021). The accompanying cost-benefit analysis ignores any negative impact this may have on medicine supply and wrongly claims it will boost investment. The consultation comes on the heels of government data last week showing UK life sciences foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by 47% between 2021 and 2022, down by £900m year on year. This large fall in investment coincided with a rise in the main UK clawback rate under the Voluntary Scheme from 5% to 15%, and led to the UK falling from 2nd to 9th out of 18 comparator countries for life sciences FDI in 2022. The Voluntary Scheme clawback rate now sits at a record 26.5% in 2023.

Boots on Thursday unveiled its Christmas campaign for 2021, 'Bags of Joy', with a festive film featuring BAFTA nominated actor Jenna Coleman. Coleman stars as modern heroine Joy in the uplifting film, directed by Academy Award winner Tom Hooper, with a magical bag that delivers the perfect gifts to her friends and family at every opportunity. Boots said the magical bag of joy represents the 1000s of gifts available at Boots, including beauty, fragrance, homeware, electrical beauty and stocking fillers, with something for everyone this year. "After the challenges of the past 18 months, we felt it was more important than ever for Boots to bring joy to the nation by telling an uplifting, positive story at Christmas," Pete Markey, Chief Marketing Officer at Boots UK, said.

Health secretary Sajid Javid and chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak have both resigned on Tuesday (July 5) after a slew of scandals undermined the government of prime minister Boris Johnson. Javid and Sunak sent resignation letters to Johnson within minutes of each other in which both took aim at his ability to run an administration that adhered to standards. The resignations came as Johnson was apologising for appointing a lawmaker to a role involved in offering pastoral care, even after being briefed that the politician had been the subject of complaints about sexual misconduct. In his resignation letter to Johnson, Javid said "it is clear to me that this situation will not change under your leadership - and you have therefore lost my confidence too". He was appointed to lead the Department of Health and Social Care in June 2021, when his predecessor Matt Hancock quit after being caught having an affair with an adviser, in breach of social distancing guidelines.

The British Generic Manufacturers Association (BGMA) has elected Diane DiGangi Trench to be its new vice-chair. DiGangi Trench takes up the position replacing Xiromed's Peter Ballard and in 12-months' time will assume the association's chair role from Accord's Peter Kelly. With over 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience, DiGangi Trench has held a number of senior commercial roles including stints with Takeda and Astra Zeneca. She joined Sandoz in 2018 in the US, where she served as Vice-President, Market Access and Patient Services. In 2021, she became the head of Sandoz' UK business and in her two years in role, she has led the organisation through a post-COVID recovery and growth phase to prepare for the proposed spin out of the company from its parent, Novartis, expected later this year. She said: "It's a great honor to take on the role of Vice Chair of the BGMA. The success of the generics and biosimilar industry is essential to the functioning of the NHS. Generic medicines fill four out of five UK prescriptions and biosimilars enable the NHS to expand access to more patients. I am passionate about increasing the sustainability of our industry so we can continue to play our vital part in the health of the nation." Mark Samuels, BGMA chief executive, said: "We are extremely fortunate to be able to call upon the expertise of Diane who has already added significant value through her role on the BGMA board and leadership of a key strategic committee.

The European Union's population shrank for a second year running last year, the bloc's statistics office said on Monday, as the region reels from over two million deaths from the coronavirus. According to Eurostat, the population of the 27 countries that make up the bloc fell by close to 172,000 from the previous year and over 656,000 from January 2020. "In 2020 and 2021 the positive net migration no longer compensated for the negative natural change in the EU and, as a consequence, the EU total population has been decreasing," it said, pointing to impacts from the pandemic. The number of deaths began outstripping births in the EU a decade ago, but immigration from outside the bloc helped offset the gap until the first year of the pandemic. The previous time the EU had registered a fall in population was in 2011 - the only other time since 1960 - but this rapidly picked up due to net migration.

British drugmaker AstraZeneca says it's confident that its new version of COVID-19 antibody treatment could protect immunocompromised patients against all known virus variants. Laboratory studies show the antibody, called AZD3152, neutralises all known variants of COVID-19 and AstraZeneca has support from regulators to make the treatment available by the end of this year, the company's vaccines head Iskra Reic said on Tuesday (April 18). AstraZeneca plans, pending more positive data and regulatory approval, to make the antibody available by the end of 2023. These types of therapies are most needed for people with compromised immune systems, either because of underlying conditions or because they are undergoing immune suppressing treatments. They account for nearly 2% of the global population. AstraZeneca's AZD3152, it new COVID-19 antibody, was acquired through a $157 million deal last year with British biotech start-up RQ Bio. The British drugmaker will likely make future investments like its current partnerships with RQ Bio but did not have any deals to announce, said Reic, a long-time AstraZeneca executive who has led the company's vaccines and immune therapies unit since it was formed in late 2021, during the pandemic.

A further 18 new products have been entered the list of 'Drugs for which Discount is Not Deducted' (DND) in Part II of the Drug Tariff on 1 November, following applications made by the PSNC. This takes the number of products added to the DND list by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) in the last 18 months to over 400. The latest list of products include Aciclovir 200mg/5ml oral suspension sugar free, Acitretin 25mg capsules and Strattera 4mg/1ml oral solution. The DND list is updated monthly by the DHSC and includes grouped and individual items, the latter being separately listed in Part II of the Drug Tariff. Any items covered by the 'Group Items' heading are not listed again individually in Part II. See here to see a list of all the monthly changes to the DND status of products.

London's Great Ormond Street Hospital and Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool are poised to introduce groundbreaking gender-related services in England, following the closure of the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) operated by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Amid concerns expressed by hospital executives regarding the closure of Gids, with leaked emails revealing apprehensions about appointment cancellations and inadequate communication with the new services, the National Health Services England (NHSE) has confirmed "its commitment to ensuring continuity of care for patients already accessing endocrine care in GIDS." NHSE's decision to transition to regional services stems from a 2022 interim review, led by Dr. Hilary Cass, which highlighted the need for improved support structures for gender-distressed youth. It emphasized a significant increase in referrals to Gids, surpassing 5,000 in 2021/22, compared to less than 250 a decade ago.