NHS England delivered 358 million general practice (GP) appointments, including Covid-19 vaccinations, in the 12 months to October 2023, an increase
of 50.9 million compared to October 2019.
This equals to 44 more appointments per practice per working day, with over 70 per cent of these taking place within two weeks of booking, data published by
NHSE on Thursday (30 November) showed.
Health Minister, Andrea Leadsom, thanked GPs and primary care teams across the country for making it possible to deliver around 32,500 more appointments
every day, which clearly demonstrate that "more people are getting the care they need, when they need it."
"While this is positive news, we know that there is more to do to make it easier and quicker for patients to contact their general practice and continue to
focus on delivering the Primary Care Recovery Plan," she added.
The Primary Care Recovery Plan published earlier this year is focused on improving access to primary care. It provided GPs in England with £240 million to
support them to embrace the latest technology to tackle the 8am rush, and handle more appointments.
As of August 2023, more than 1,000 general practices had signed up to digital upgrades to make booking GP appointments easier.
Following the UK government's new pay offer to NHS consultants, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) wrote to the Health Secretary Victoria Atkins calling for
fresh negotiations about nursing pay in England last week.
However, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has rejected their demand, stating that there is no basis to reopen talks as the pay deal was accepted by
the NHS Staff Council.
In the previous pay deal, nurses were given a one-off payment between £1,655 and £3,789 for 2022/23, and a 5 per cent consolidated pay increase for the 2023/24
financial year.
Nursingnotes quoted a DHSC spokesperson as saying: "We hugely value the hard work of NHS nurses and that is why we provided a 5 per cent pay rise.
"We also provided two significant non-consolidated awards, which for nurses at the top of Band 5 was over £2,000, equivalent to an extra 6.1 per cent of their
basic pay.
Community Pharmacy England (CPE) Chief Executive, Janet Morrison met with the new Pharmacy Minister, Dame Andrea Leadsom MP this week and discussed a
range of critical topics, including funding and pressures.
Janet informed the minister that community pharmacies continue to face immense financial pressures, and highlighted the need for an improved core contract.
She told the minister that 35-50 per cent real term cuts and rising costs have led to closures, consolidations and cashflow.
This has weakened the capacity for the network to respond to displaced patients, increased risk in terms of the safety of medicine supply, and led to loss of
service for communities in the most deprived areas, she said.
The employees from large drugstore chains staged an additional walkout at stores this week from 1 Nov to 3 Nov.
Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid pharmacists launched a three-day walkout to push companies to hire more staff and improve working conditions.
The majority of pharmacy workers in Kansas City called in sick or walked off the job as they felt it was harder to work with "minimal" help.
Licenced pharmacist, Amanda Applegate, who is also a Director of practise development with the Kansas Pharmacists Association spoke on the plight of the pharmacists.
"This is a nationwide problem that pharmacists have been internally yelling about for years."
Community Pharmacy England (CPE) is seeking views from all community pharmacy owners about the pressures faced this autumn season.
A survey has been launched as the "November Pre-Committee Opinion Poll" until 6 November to seek views from independents and non-Company Chemists' Association (CCA)
members.
The results of the poll will be sent to the head offices of CCA multiples next week for discussion at the November Committee Meeting.
CPE confirmed: "The results of these polls and the outcomes of the meeting will be reported back to the sector afterwards.
They said that the survey "will be used to feed into our ongoing work to press for an uplift to core funding by enhancing our evidence base of what pharmacy owners
are experiencing."
The UK Government is investing £100 million to accelerate the use of AI in life sciences and healthcare under a new mission.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the AI Life Sciences Accelerator Mission in his speech last week.
The new initiative will capitalise on the UK's unique strengths in securing "health data and cutting-edge AI."
It will also help to identify those at risk of "dementia" and will ensure that patients participate in the trials at the right time to develop new treatments
effectively.
Henceforth, it will provide us with better data on how well new therapies work.
Sunak said: "AI can help us solve some of the greatest social challenges of our time. AI could help find novel dementia treatments or develop vaccines for cancer."
MP Steve Brine, the chair of the health and care committee, said that the healthcare in the UK "doesn't work without pharmacy".
The inquiry focuses on addressing current issues, particularly around the "funding model, digital infrastructure and workforce recruitment, training and retention."
Brine said at the Sigma annual conference on Sunday, that he wants to "focus on the sector", and "drill down into some of the challenges and potential" that lies
ahead.
"The Health and Social Care Committee, we think about much of our work through the lens of pharmacy, what role it plays, the quality of care that it delivers, and
the potential for it to do more," said Brine.
He further said that he wants to "build on the groundwork" and to "cover as many of the different pharmacy services within the pharmacy sector as we can, so pharmacy
in our communities, in hospitals and general practice".
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Novartis drug, Cosentyx, (secukinumab) to treat moderate to severe hidradenitis suppurativa (HS)
in adults.
HS is a chronic, progressive and painful disease which affects one in 100 people worldwide, and has limited treatment options.
"Cosentyx is the only FDA-approved fully human biologic that directly inhibits interleukin-17A (IL-17A), a cytokine believed to be involved in the inflammation
of HS," said the Swiss company.
The FDA approval was based on robust Phase III data (SUNSHINE and SUNRISE studies) in which Cosentyx showed rapid relief from HS symptoms as early as Week 21.
Members of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) highlighted the work of pharmacists in making medicines use and the whole NHS more environmentally
sustainable at the Welsh Senedd this week.
Politicians present were informed that around 25 per cent of the NHS' carbon emissions result from medicines use, and therefore pharmacists' expert skills are
crucial for reducing these emissions.
RPS Wales Director, Elen Jones, was among the RPS staff who attended the event, which was co-hosted with the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.
Commenting on the event, Elen said: "It was great to get so many productive conversations with the politicians to highlight the great work pharmacists are already
doing in the sustainability field and to explain what further steps are required to reduce the negative environmental and ecological impact of medicines."
Wales launched the new electronic prescribing service (EPS) last week, with the country's first electronic prescription sent and dispensed on 17 November.
The new service allows prescriptions to be sent digitally to a patient's nominated pharmacy, thus eliminating the need for paper forms.
It is part of a wider plan to introduce digital medicines and e-prescribing in all hospitals and primary care in the country.
Wellington Road Pharmacy and Lakeside Medical Centre in Rhyl became the first community pharmacy and GP practice to use the EPS, which is expected to be
rolled out across Wales in January 2024.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended pembrolizumab in combination with chemotherapy (paclitaxel or nab-paclitaxel)
which is said to benefit people with triple negative breast cancer.
Clinical trial evidence shows that, compared with paclitaxel, pembrolizumab combination increases how long people have before their cancer gets worse and how long they live.
NICE already recommends atezolizumab in combination with chemotherapy for untreated PD-L1-positive, locally advanced or metastatic, triple-negative breast cancer.
Atezolizumab combination is recommended by NICE for people with IC equal to or greater than 1%.
"This means that some people who can't have atezolizumab combination could be eligible for pembrolizumab combination," said NICE.
NICE's independent appraisal committee also agreed that the pembrolizumab combination meets the higher cost-effectiveness threshold for life-extending treatments for people with a short life expectancy.
Given by injection every 3 weeks, pembrolizumab (also called Keytruda and made by Merck Sharp and Dohme) is a type of immunotherapy that specifically targets triple
negative breast cancer. It works by blocking the activity of a protein known as PD-L1 which is produced in larger amounts on cancerous cells than normal cells. By blocking PD-L1 it helps the person's own immune cells to attack the cancer.
In partnership with the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust (LTHT) has recently established an innovative
cardiometabolic clinic.
The clinic focuses on reducing cardiovascular risk in people with diabetes who have recently been discharged from LTHT following a heart attack. It is delivered jointly by the cardiology department at Leeds General Infirmary and the diabetes services at the Trust.
This is a patient-centred approach to reducing that risk, with pharmacist-delivered clinics scheduled for six to eight weeks after the heart attack.
Stephen Wheatcroft, Professor of Cardiometabolic Medicine and Consultant Cardiologist at LTHT, said: "This is an exciting and innovative development, one of the
first in the country. Previously, Type 2 diabetic patients presenting with heart issues would have been treated by two separate specialty teams. This is the first time there has been a specific clinic combining the cardiac and diabetes team working together.
"We aim to reduce the risk for patients, with earlier multidisciplinary hospital care, to help discharged patients achieve better diabetes control, through improved medication support and optimisation, reducing the need for further treatment and future hospital stays. Overall, it will mean a better patient experience, with improved monitoring and information about treatment options, along with a reduction in waiting times for review in a specialist clinic."
Two weeks prior to the closing of the hub and spoke consultation, issues around patient safety, costs and competition as well as practicalities such as what
to do with uncollected medicines were discussed in a webinar on hub and spoke dispensing on Wednesday (May 26).
The webinar was organised by Sigma Pharmaceuticals in association with the National Pharmacy Association (NPA).
NPA director of corporate affairs Gareth Jones chaired the event and was joined by Sigma's Hatul Shah and Raj Haria as well as NPA vice chair Nick Kaye and NPA
head of advice and support services Jasmine Shah.
Kaye said: "There are still many 'unknown unknowns' with hub and spoke and the jury's still out on any potential benefits. I have lots of reservations about cost
and it worries me how efficient this is for the business and the long term sustainability for the sector as a whole. Above all we need to think about the patient
at the centre of all this and the potential confusion for them."
Jasmine Shah felt patient safety was going to be the key in regards to whether the spoke and the hub would hold the ultimate responsibility and "who is going to
take the accountability as far as patient care goes".
She added: "It is most important that GPhC standards and NHS requirement are both met in identifying all the risks associated with the arrangement with hub and
spoke and ensuring that (patient safety) measures are in place. Everything that needs to be looked at is by putting the patient at heart of the arrangement and
seeing what is the safest way for them to receive care from both spoke and hub."
The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has expressed disappointment at the omission, once again, of the promised Employment Rights Bill omitted from the Queen's Speech earlier this week.
The Bill is pledged to strengthen day one employment rights and increase the productivity of businesses.
It set out plans which would protect and enhance workers' rights and aim to make the UK the best place in the world to work at. This included plans to introduce the right to request flexible working for around 2.2 million people in Great Britain - regardless of time served in a bid to modernise the way employees work.
The PDA said: "The Employment Rights Bill would have presented an opportunity to improve the ability for workers to obtain redress in the event of poor treatment or discrimination through the development of a single labour market enforcement body.
"Poor employment practices, such as insecure work through long-term zero-hours contracts, unilaterally changing workers' terms and conditions by terminating their
contracts and re-hiring them on new terms and conditions (also known as fire and rehire), and the sacking of workers without notice, as recently demonstrated by P
& O Ferries, could have been outlawed under new legislation."
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 Royal Pharmaceutical Society has opened a survey which asks its members how they would want to take part in and learn about decisions made by the RPS.
The RPS said the survey was a core part of the independent review of member participation and communications led by communications consultancy Luther Pendragon.
It said: "We will be asking our members to join focus groups to give their opinions on how participation can be developed and strengthened, and how RPS communications
about decisions it has taken on behalf of the profession through its governance boards can be improved. We will also be asking our elected members and key external
stakeholders for their views over the coming weeks."
The Luther team will then build a series of recommendations for RPS and develop a corporate communications strategy which will include action plans to enable greater
participation.
RPS president Claire Anderson said: "We want to hear from as many of you as possible through our survey to inform how the organisation works with and engages with you,
our members.
Community pharmacies in England could soon be allowed to make cancer referrals to hospitals under new plans to improve early detection of the disease.
An NHS pilot scheme, which starts later this year as a pilot in an undisclosed number of places of England, will see community pharmacy staff spotting signs of
cancer in people who might not have noticed symptoms.
Pharmacy teams will be trained to spot red flags, such as patients with symptoms such as a cough that lasts for three weeks or more, difficulty swallowing or blood
in their urine, and send them for scans and checks without needing to see a GP if they think it could be cancer.
Amanda Pritchard, the NHS chief executive, will unveil the plans at the NHS Confed Expo conference in Liverpool on Wednesday (June 15), and say: "These plans have
the power to truly transform the way we find and treat cancer, and ultimately spare thousands of patients and their families from avoidable pain and loss."
The plans include new "roaming liver trucks" - which will be parked near GP surgeries, in town centres and food banks - to encourage people most at risk of getting liver cancer to get "on the spot scans" for diagnosis.
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) is asking independents to vote 'yes' to reform of pharmacy representation in England as a three-week voting period opens on Friday, May 27.
The NPA is also calling on PSNC to complete unfinished business and present 'the compelling case for change' that the Review Steering Group was unable to deliver.
The Associations says it is "on balance" and with some degree of reluctance supporting an affirmative vote, because the benefits marginally outweigh the several valid arguments for a "no" vote.
NPA chief executive, Mark Lyonette, said on Thursday (May 19): "After much deliberation and engagement with members, we are recommending our members vote yes, because the alternatives are either the flawed status quo or a further period of uncertainty for the sector, with months or even years of introspection to come. There is no guarantee that going back to the drawing board, particularly with the same actors, would bring about a better outcome.
Superdrug has reported more than 400 per cent spike in sale of the chickenpox vaccines in the UK.
To protect children against the disease during chickenpox season, nearly nine out of 10 patients (87 per cent) have taken their wards under the age of five for vaccination in the last eight weeks.
Chickenpox can be a seasonal disease with children usually catching it in the winter and spring, with UK peaks often between March and May.
The last two years of spending time in and out of various lockdowns have meant less interaction between people, and so less transmission across the general population.
Caris Newson, head of healthcare services at Superdrug, said: "One of the knock-on effects of Covid is that people have a greater awareness and understanding of the benefits that vaccines can offer.
"We launched the chickenpox vaccination service five years ago in 2017 and it's now that we're beginning to see greater interest in how it can support family health. In fact, our fully qualified nurses have told us that they've had more parents ask about the chickenpox vaccination service, and word of mouth has then spread amongst parents and schools."
The government has announced a freeze to the NHS prescription charges, first time in 12 years, to help people ease with the cost of living and ensure
prescription medication remains accessible.
Charges for prescriptions will remain at £9.35 for a single charge or £30.25 for a 3-month prescription prepayment certificate (PPC), the Department of Health and
Social Care (DHSC) said, adding that the measure will help save £17 million.
The 12-month PPCs will remain at £108.10 and can be paid for in instalments, meaning people can get all the medicines they need for just over £2 a week, it added.
The NHS low income scheme will also help with prescription payments, with free prescriptions for eligible people in certain groups such as pensioners, students,
and those who receive state benefits or live in care homes.
"The rise in the cost of living has been unavoidable as we face global challenges and the repercussions of Putin's illegal war in Ukraine. While we cannot completely
prevent these rises, where we can help, we absolutely will," Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said.
"This is why I am freezing prescription charges to help ease some of these pressures and put money back in people's pockets."
