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The NHS is going to launch a new campaign using the iconic Beatles song 'Help!" to encourage people to take better care of their mental health. The campaign, being launched today (January 17), is backed by some of the UK's biggest artists, urging people to seek support for their mental wellbeing. Since the beginning of the pandemic around 2.3 million people have come forward for NHS talking therapies, with over 50 per cent being concerned about their mental health last year. The NHS is encouraging anybody experiencing anxiety, depression, or other common mental health concerns to experience how talking therapies can help them. NHS mental health talking therapies are a confidential service run by fully trainedexperts that can be accessed through self-referral or GP practice.

Walgreens Boots Alliance, the American owner of Boots UK, could risk losing billions after a private equity firm interested in buying its UK high street pharmacy chain valued the retailer at a steep discount, The Telegraph reported on Monday (April 11). "Buyout funds CVC and Bain indicated that they were willing to pay just £4bn for the business," the newspaper said, adding that "the consortium bowed out of the running" in March. The US retail giant Walgreens, which acquired Boots in 2014 for £9bn, has put a £7bn price tag on the UK pharmacy retail chain after selling its wholesale arm, Alliance Healthcare, last year. Citing city sources, the newspaper said the low valuation of the pharmacy multiple was "significant" because CVC's UK operations were led by Dominic Murphy, a Walgreens board member involved with Boots for 15 years. "He (Murphy) knows where the bodies are buried," the newspaper quoted one City source as stating. A spokesperson for Boots confirmed that CVC and Bain never lodged a formal offer for the company.

A leading pharmacist and member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) Scottish Pharmacy Board has been chosen to share her experiences of working in a community pharmacy in Scotland. Catriona Sinclair FRPharmS will speak at a roundtable entitled 'International Experiences in Professional Pharmaceutical Health Services' in Madrid on Thursday (May 5). Catriona, who owns and runs a pharmacy in the Highlands, is expected to give her take on community pharmacies' significant contribution towards achieving improved health outcomes and reducing health inequalities for local populations in Scotland. As an active independent prescriber, she is at the cutting edge of the profession in Scotland. Speaking ahead of her visit to Madrid, Catriona said: "I'm honoured to have the opportunity to collaborate with pharmacists from across Europe, and to share my experiences of working as a community pharmacist in Scotland.

Private healthcare provider CityDoc has partnered with the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) in its bid to widen a "nationwide network of vaccine clinics" to increase footfall to community pharmacies that come onboard. The company says NPA member pharmacies that join the network will have their own dedicated page on the CityDoc website, while benefiting from having online marketing done on their behalf via an extensive Google AdWords campaign and local listings optimisation - all paid for by CityDoc. The participating pharmacies will also have access to their own booking system, marketing materials and access to the latest vaccine and private healthcare information. NPA member Nick Daines, who runs Lifestyle Pharmacy in Bath, said he has partnered with CityDoc for six years and seen "a significant increase in revenue from private services." He added: "The CityDoc partnership has allowed us to establish Lifestyle Pharmacy as a go-to venue for healthcare within Bath. "We have seen significantly increased footfall thanks to our partnership with CityDoc, which in turn has allowed us to grow the NHS and retail aspects of the business."

Today, pharmaceutical companies can't simply make an effective drug and count on healthcare providers (HCPs) to come to them - they have to find innovative ways to attract them. Statista shows that in 2015 there were only 3,286 pharma companies with active research and development pipelines. In 2023, this number jumped to more than 5,500. As an earth-shattering number of new drugs are flooding the market each year, HCPs are having a hard time determining the best medicine for their patients. Meanwhile, pharma companies invest more in marketing to help HCPs get rid of choice paralysis and make them choose their solution over that of competitors. In this article, we will share the tried-and-true tactics to build a strong pharma brand. Get creative with interactive email marketing One…two…three…No, we're not counting to run a marathon. Three seconds is what you've got to pull your reader in with your email. Fail to quickly grab the audience's attention? We've got some bad news for you. Nobody's going to bother reading about how amazing your pharmaceutical product is if you're churning out generic emails with artificial intelligence tools.

I got mine today, go grab yours free tea sample by just filling a short from and type " I Want Some Free Tea " before samples run out

What skills does a pharmacist need these days? You'd think it would be sufficient to have a good understanding of pharmacy and the ability to offer a great patient service. Whilst this is true of course, the reality of the day to day role demands skills which most pharmacists have not been trained for as part of their formal qualification. At the very least, pharmacists find themselves responsible for running the pharmacy, managing people, managing processes and dealing with issues relating to customers, suppliers, surgeries, regulators and stakeholders. Even the most junior pharmacists quickly find themselves being accountable for the financial performance of their department and having to work within budgets or deliver on targets. Remarkably, despite the apparent lack of any formal training in these areas, pharmacists have been able to adapt and meet the challenges of whatever their job has thrown at them. Many pharmacists go even further, bringing out their inner entrepreneurial spirit to set up their own business. There are now over 6,000 pharmacy businesses owned by independent pharmacists, with this segment growing. Whilst pharmacists have historically adapted to their environments and picked up the necessary business skills, the rapidly changing landscape of pharmacy will require pharmacists to establish new skills to help ensure their businesses survive and thrive.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) brought together a wide range of pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy organisations from across Scotland at the Scottish Parliament on Monday (3 October) to support people living with disabilities. The meeting was chaired by Jeremy Balfour MSP, Convener of the Scottish Parliament's Cross-Party Group on Disability, and the meeting was also attended by the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer Alison Strath. Attendees of the meeting committed to bold actions to support people living with seen and unseen disabilities to work in pharmacy. Last year, a survey of RPS members identified that living with a disability was considered to be the biggest barrier to working in pharmacy. This year, RPS is running a disability in pharmacy awareness campaign, to highlight some of the barriers and challenges raised by RPS members and to work with stakeholders across pharmacy to overcome these. Yesterday's conversation at the Scottish Parliament was a significant step in achieving this.

Community pharmacies in England will continue to receive the free protective equipment (PPE) as the Government's scheme has been extended for another year until March 2024. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced that it will continue to supply all categories of PPE, free of charge, for frontline health and social care staff according to demand until the end of March 2024, or when stocks run out. Last year, DHSC implemented a new and improved portal platform for eligible providers to access free COVID-19 related PPE supplies. The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Commitee (PSNC) said: "Community pharmacy teams can continue to order PPE from the NHS PPE portal for free for as long as stock is available."

Being able to access high-quality healthcare at the times you need it most is vital. Regardless of whether this is a simple check-up, a medical review or complex surgery, having a suitable healthcare package designed according to your medical needs will be beneficial in the long run. The NHS has recently come under significant strain. Factors such as an increase in the number of patients, reduced funding and increased life expectancy have led to long waiting times and limited treatments. As a result, more individuals are now seeking private healthcare which, while it may be more expensive, offers faster and more effective treatment. Here we'll discuss some of the main benefits of private healthcare and why it is becoming the ideal choice for healthcare in 2023. Reduced waiting times One of the main issues faced by the NHS is waiting times, with some patients being made to wait up to a year for routine hospital care. Currently, ambulance services and A&E units are under unprecedented pressure and it is estimated that hundreds of deaths each week are associated with admission delays. Understaffing has been a chronic issue in recent years in the NHS and is a major threat to the welfare of patients. This has been one of the major concerns that has led to nurses and ambulance staff taking strike action. As nurses and hospital workers are put under higher strain, they are more likely to make mistakes, which could well lead to patients coming into harm and making a claim. Opting for private healthcare guarantees that you are able to access your appointments, surgeries and treatments much quicker, with some flexibility offered to align with your lifestyle. The capacity to bypass the painfully long waiting times ensures you receive the necessary medical attention much sooner and could prevent the emergence of other health complications.

Thousands of people in Britain infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood transfusions will receive a compensation payment decades after the scandal, the government announced on Wednesday (August 17). The payment of £100,000 ($121,000) to each victim is an interim one after Brian Langstaff, the chairman of a public inquiry into the long-running scandal, last month recommended making immediate payouts before waiting for an ongoing inquiry to conclude. The former High Court judge said that the "moral case for compensation is beyond doubt". The government said the tax-free payments, to survivors of the scandal and bereaved partners of the thousands estimated to have died from the contaminated blood, would be made by the end of October. Thousands of people with haemophilia contracted hepatitis C and HIV after receiving blood transfusions, mainly from the United States, through the NHS in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Due to a shortage of blood products in Britain, the NHS bought much of its stock from US suppliers whose donors, including prisoners and other groups at high risk of infection, had been paid for their blood.

The Conservative Party Prime Ministerial candidate Rishi Sunak visited Bassett Pharmacy in Southampton on Wednesday (Aug 24) - the pharmacy that used to be run by his family. During the visit, Sunak is reported to have said that he intends to reform the NHS and achieve value for money from health spending, should he become prime minister. Giving his reaction to the visit, National Pharmacy Association (NPA) chief executive Mark Lyonette said: "If Rishi Sunak is serious about NHS reform, he would do well to start with a 'pharmacy first' approach to prevention and treatment which has the potential to transform the way people access NHS care. "That can only happen with a sustained increase in funding for our sector, which is facing much harder times now than it ever did when Mr Sunak's parents owned a pharmacy years ago." Earlier in the week, NPA board member Hiten Patel met the former chancellor when he visited West Harrow for a campaign event on August 23. Patel took the opportunity to explain that pharmacies in England are not being properly supported to fulfil their potential within the NHS.

Pharmacy bodies and MPs discussed on support needed to unlock the "full potential" of community pharmacy at the All Pharmacy Party Group (APPG)'s general meeting held in Westminster on Tuesday (01 November). The attendees of the meeting were Janet Morrison OBE, Chief Executive of Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee; Malcolm Harrison, Chief Executive of The Company Chemists' Association; Thorrun Govind, Chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society; Sanjeev Panesar, National Pharmacy Association Board Member, and Pharmacist Superintendent and Owner of the Pan Pharmacy Group; and Sandeep Dhami, Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies member and superintendent at MW Phillips Chemist At the session, 18 parliamentarians were briefed on the myriad of ways pharmacies contribute to the health of the nation. The panel of experts also highlighted that pharmacists are 'running out of fuel' with the growing challenges such as flat funding, workforce shortages and the cost-of-living crisis impacting pharmacies' ability to deliver vital services.

A pharmacy group operating in London and the surrounding areas has said it's cliched a financial deal worth £4.25 million with a major global bank to bolster its mergers and acquisitions activity. Osbon Pharmacy Group said on Monday (19 June) that it would use the multi-million-pound funding package from HSBC UK to also invest in bringing accessible and comprehensive medical services closer to the doorstep of Londoners and people of South East England. The family-run business said the new money will open new position which will include opportunities for pharmacists, pharmacy assistants, pharmacy technicians, dispensers, accounts clerks and delivery drivers, taking the company's total headcount to 185. The group, which currently has 26 pharmacies across London and South East England, was established in 2005. The company offers a range of medicine and prescription services as well as offering customary help and advice. It switched to banking with HSBC UK last year as part of a £6.9M refinance package, which saw the business acquire nine pharmacies and takes the total funding provided by HSBC UK to date to £11.1m.

Glenmark, a multinational pharmaceutical company, has partnered with AI data-driven supply chain management platform 7bridges. Initially focusing on their European business, where they have operations in 15 markets, the supply chain and logistics function is a big focus area for this cost reduction. The partnership with 7bridges will allow Glenmark to baseline their supply chain data giving them visibility of data, cost and service performance across their network of logistics service providers. This exercise will identify areas where invoices from their logistics service providers are being incorrectly or overcharged. With automatic dispute raising, savings will be quickly achieved. The platform will then enable Glenmark to benchmark their data, so they can compare the performance and cost of their LSPs to the wider industry. With Glenmark's global vision to emerge as a leading integrated research-based global pharmaceutical company, this investment in their supply chain will be integral to achieving this. The next step in the partnership will be to run simulations to optimise road freight services and 3PL operations, with the aim to then roll out globally.

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.

Stone Pharmacy in Barnsley, South Yorkshire has been sold to existing operator, Livesey Healthcare, which owns another pharmacy in East Lancashire for an undisclosed price. Stone Pharmacy is a well-established, 100-hour community pharmacy that is run under full management with a locum Pharmacist, and dispenses an average of 22,000 items per month. The business adjoins Garland House surgery in the South Yorkshire village of Darfield, which is circa six miles east of Barnsley and circa 14 miles north of Sheffield. The pharmacy has been owned by experienced operators, Khuram Akhtar and Mohammed Ali, trading as MEDS2U Ltd, for the last seven years, and was recently brought to market to allow the pair to pursue new ventures both in and out of community pharmacy. Khuram Akhtar, former owner of Stone Pharmacy, commented: "The business at Stone Pharmacy has been a fantastic enterprise for many years for us, with limited competition and a position central to the local community we have always enjoyed the support of the nearby population and are pleased that it is now in the hands of experienced operators who can build on that foundation with the expansion of new services.

The new board of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has adopted 10 principles for transforming the contractual framework in England. The board met for the first time in April, believes that the current Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework is failing NPA members, the wider sector, the NHS, Government and patients. The association's new vice chair, Jay Badenhorst, said: "We can't wait until the current framework limps to its finish line in 2024 before giving serious thought to the new race we must all run in the future." "Before negotiations for a new contract begin in earnest, we want to make our position clear to all of those who will be involved in its development. Years more of the same would be totally unacceptable. Tinkering at the edges of the current arrangements as the basis for a new deal could not achieve the transformation that is needed." Former chair of the NPA, Andrew Lane, listed some of the principles in a speech to industry leaders in January, but this is the first time the approach has been agreed in its entirety, following months of testing with NPA members.

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 primary responsibility of community pharmacists is taking care of their patients but to do that they also need to learn how to run the business. It is one thing to be au fait with profit and loss statements, reimbursement models, budgets analysis, business planning and so much more but quite another when one is hard pressed on everything - time, resources and cash flow. Bas Vorsteveld - the new vice president and general manager in Great Britain & Ireland for Haleon, a new company 100 per cent focussed on consumer healthcare - has witnessed first-hand how "time poor" pharmacists usually are and is committed to helping ease their burden wherever possible. "They can be drowning in work at all times throughout the day. If I happen to spot a community pharmacy while I am out shopping with the family, I almost always pop into the store, with obviously a lot of questions in my head. If the pharmacist has the time, I ask them a few questions and once we start the conversation and they find out that I'm the general manager for a company that provides them with some of their big brand products, I often get a look of total surprise on their face, especially as I've come to visit their store and take the time to speak with them personally. I've really seen first-hand what a busy bunch they are! "I often want to know how the shop front is presented? What does the pharmacy look like from inside? Is there a big queue? What kind of advertisement the pharmacy has in place? How are our products merchandised?