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Healthcare workers, including community pharmacy staff, can book their Covid-19 booster vaccination through the National Booking Service from Wednesday (September 7) onwards. NHS England has announced that around seven million people, including those aged 75 and over, people who are immunosuppressed and health and care workers will be able to book an appointment for their Covid-19 booster vaccinations online or by calling 119. Eligible staff are encouraged to book an appointment for a booster dose as soon as possible, provided it has been at least three months since their last dose of the vaccine. "For other eligible patients (not health and care workers), invitations are being sent out and will be landing on their doormats from Wednesday 7th September inviting people to book their appointment for the following week without delay. The NHS will contact people when it is their turn to book in for the vaccine - there will be no need for patients to contact the NHS," said PSNC.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has challenged price concessions imposed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on some of the medicines. It has raised concerns on the process for setting price concessions to senior government officials responsible for medicines supply, warning that the system is not working in the current environment from a community pharmacy contractor perspective. "When a new government takes over next week, this will be one of several urgent topics being raised by PSNC to new ministers, alongside the fuel price crisis, inflationary pressures and winter pressures on pharmacy businesses," said PSNC. The final update to August price concessions was announced yesterday taking the total concessions granted to a record 138 for August. PSNC said: "Of those, 99 were in line with PSNC requests, but prices for 39 lines were imposed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC): those impositions do not match the purchase prices reported by contractors and the evidence of market prices which we passed on to DHSC. In particular, the final imposed prices of Apriprazole and Temazepam tablets has generated a lot of concern amongst contractors due to the large variation between their reimbursement prices and purchase prices during the month of August."

At the Conservative Party Conference, PM Rishi Sunak pledged to raise the legal age every year to buy from those who were born in 2009. The proposed changes also encompass heated tobacco products, recognized as smoke-free alternatives that heat, not burn, tobacco to produce a distinct nicotine-containing aerosol compared to traditional cigarette smoke. The following move in a bid to "try and stop teenagers taking up cigarettes in the first place", and bring in restrictions to stop young people from vaping. PM Rishi Sunak spoke at the conference, "Last week I promised to create the first smoke-free generation and I am wasting no time to deliver on that promise.

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has reminded healthcare professionals that use of systemic (oral and injectable) Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen, naproxen, and diclofenac is contraindicated in the last trimester of pregnancy (after 28 weeks of pregnancy). It has advised that patients who are unsure whether pain relief medicine they are taking is an anti-inflammatory (NSAID), to speak to doctor, midwife, or pharmacist. Some non-prescription pain relief medicines may contain more than one active drug, therefore it is important to read the box or the leaflet provided with the medicine to see if it contains an NSAID like ibuprofen. The use of any non-prescription medicine for the management of pain during pregnancy should be for the shortest possible time at the lowest possible dose, suggested MHRA.

Paul Rees MBE has joined the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) today (27 November) as its new Chief Executive. Current NPA Chief Executive Mark Lyonette, who is retiring, will remain at the NPA for some weeks in order to ensure a smooth handover. Previously, Paul has worked as the Chief Executive of the Royal College of Psychiatrists for the seven years. On joining NPA, Paul said: "It is a great privilege and honour to take up the position of NPA Chief Executive. The association is the voice of independent community pharmacy and is core to the sector's future success in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. "I am delighted that the NPA has placed its trust in me and I intend to deliver for NPA members, for the sector and for society at large, which relies on there being a vibrant community pharmacy network in villages, towns and cities across the four nations of the UK." When Paul's appointment was first announced in September, NPA Chair Nick Kaye said that they identified him as an "excellent fit for our organisation" after a rigorous recruitment process, and also thanked Mark for his "great work as chief exec since 2018."

The Company Chemists' Association (CCA) has highlighted a worrying trend of increasing numbers of pharmacy closures in England, which is disproportionately affecting the most deprived communities in the country. With 338 more pharmacies closed this year, an average of eight pharmacies closed per week, there has been a net loss of 1,008 pharmacies in England since 2015, the CCA said. Between 2015 and June 2023, maximum number of pharmacies were closed in the 20 per cent most deprived neighbourhoods of the country, with 37.5 per cent of the total closures occurring in Indices of Multiple Deprivation deciles 1 and 2. The association has raised concern that "permanent closures will undermine healthcare accessibility in deprived areas, where access tends to be more limited despite greater need."

After a month of intense talks, the British government and unions representing consultant doctors in England have reached an agreement, potentially ending six months of disruptive strike action. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has put forward an offer to reform the pay structure for senior doctors from January 2024, reducing the number of pay points and the time it takes to reach the top. As part of this offer, consultants will also be entitled to enhanced shared parental leave, bringing them in line with other NHS staff. New arrangements will ensure a clearer link between pay progression and evidence of skills, competencies and experience, the DHSC said. The British Medical Association (BMA) and Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) agreed to put the offer to their members for a vote in the coming weeks, with no further strike action to be called during that time.

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."