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Community pharmacy teams have administered almost 4.8 million flu vaccinations under the NHS Flu Vaccination Service in 2021-22, which is 73 per cent more
more than the 2.8 million vaccines administered last season.
Data received so far from PharmOutcomes and Sonar Informatics has confirmed that pharmacy teams have administered 4,793,124 vaccinations, although the total number
will be even higher as some data are still awaited and some pharmacy teams have not used the electronic systems to record administration of vaccines.
The Flu Vaccination Service 2021-22 ended on March 31, 2022 and the total number of vaccinations administered (which will include the figures from pharmacy teams
who did not use electronic systems to record administration of vaccines) is expected to be published later in the year by the NHS Business Services Authority.
England won't have any new Covid-19 restrictions before the end of 2021, health secretary Sajid Javid said on Monday (December 27) whilst the government awaits more evidence on whether the NHS can cope with high infection rates in the new year.
"There will be no further measures before the new year," Javid told reporters, adding: "When we get into the new year, of course we will see then whether we do need to take any further measures."
He said that the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the virus now accounted for around 90 per cent of cases across England and urged people to celebrate New Year
cautiously.
The government's attention is focused on the number of patients being hospitalised with Omicron after early data last week suggested the variant carried a lower
risk of admission.
The latest data showed the number of patients in hospital in England with Covid-19 was its highest since March, at 8,474, but a long way off peaks above 34,000 in January.
A combination of factors, including Britain's vaccination programme, the lag between infections and hospitalisations and the potentially less harmful effects of the Omicron variant have all been put forward by health experts as possible explanations for lower numbers.
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) today released a new guidance to pharmaceutical companies using Disclosure UK which it said will boost transparency in the relationships between healthcare professionals, other relevant decision-makers and the industry.
The guidance encourages companies to use 'Legitimate Interests' as their lawful basis for processing individual's data, in order to increase the number of named healthcare professionals and other individuals on Disclosure UK, the database showing the payments and benefits in kind made by the pharmaceutical industry to doctors,nurses and other health professionals and organizations.
"I'm pleased the ABPI is launching this new guidance which will boost patient safety and public confidence in our healthcare professionals," Patient Safety and Primary Care Minister Maria Caulfield commented.
The price concession for Atorvastatin 80mg has been increased to £3.91 from the previously set £3.45 for prescriptions dispensed in July, the Community Pharmacy
England has said. The Department of Health and Social Care additionally introduced a concession price of £3.38 for Atorvastatin 20mg.
"In July, our Dispensing and Supply Team experienced an unusually high influx of reports from pharmacies struggling to acquire Atorvastatin 80mg tablets at the
listed Drug Tariff price," said CPE.
CPE requested a price concession early in the month. However, after extended discussions, an agreement on the price wasn't reached. Consequently, on July 31st, the
DHSC imposed a concession of £3.45.
Addressing enduring pharmacy concerns over the pricing, CPE intensified advocacy with DHSC. This endeavour resulted in the revision of the Atorvastatin 80mg tablet
concession price to £3.91 for prescriptions submitted and dispensed in July.
According to CPE, this adjusted price sufficiently covers costs as reported by the majority of pharmacy owners.
However, DHSC has refrained from modifying concessionary prices for the other two requested lines by CPE. DHSC communicated that their team's data collection for
July, employing real-time sales and volume data, was incongruent with the adjustment of these prices, CPE further said.
Data crunched by an online pharmacy delivery company paints a concerning picture for the pharmacy sector in England.
Gophr's 'Prescription For Pressure' initiative reveals a challenging time for the sector and is supported by separate analysis by the BBC showing that the number
of pharmacies in England is at its lowest since 2010.
In addition, new powers being introduced for pharmacists to prescribe common prescription drugs and perform routine tests create an even greater workload for already
overstretched pharmacists.
Gophr's data reveals that:
* Each pharmacy in England serves an average of 6,078 people.
* In 2022, pharmacists dispensed 1.043 billion prescriptions, 26.3 million more than 2021.
* A single pharmacy in England dispensed 248 prescriptions a day on average in 2022.
Based on the most up-to-date statistics from the Office for National Statistics, NHS England and Statista, Gophr's calculations show that pharmacists have around 116
seconds to dispense a prescription, which is less time than the 180 seconds it takes to make a Quarter Pounder at McDonald's.
The World Health Organization called for caution on Tuesday (May 16) in using artificial intelligence for public healthcare, saying data used by AI to reach
decisions could be biased or misused.
The WHO said it was enthusiastic about the potential of AI but had concerns over how it will be used to improve access to health information, as a decision-support
tool and to improve diagnostic care.
The WHO said in a statement the data used to train AI may be biased and generate misleading or inaccurate information and the models can be misused to generate
disinformation.
It was "imperative" to assess the risks of using generated large language model tools (LLMs), like ChatGPT, to protect and promote human wellbeing and protect public
health, the U.N. health body said.
Pfizer said on Thursday (June 1) data from late-stage trials showed its experimental combination of antibiotics was effective in treating deadly infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria.
Deaths from antibiotic-resistant bacteria, also known as superbugs, have been on the rise globally, and health regulators have called for the development of newer
treatments as resistance to older antibiotics grows.
The late-stage studies compared the experimental combination of the antibiotics aztreonam-avibactam (ATM-AVI) and existing generic drug metronidazole with a
combination of two older antibiotics - meropenem and colistin - to treat complicated intra-abdominal infections and types of hospital-acquired pneumonia.
Hospital-acquired pneumonia occurs in patients at least two to three days after being admitted, or in those who have life-threatening lung infections with high
mortality rates and who are on mechanical breathing machines.
Pfizer said the data from the studies shows the antibiotic combination of ATM-AVI is effective and well-tolerated in treating infections caused by gram-negative
bacteria.
The cure rate in patients with complicated intra-abdominal infections with Pfizer's combination therapy, along with existing generic drug metronidazole, was 76.4%,
versus 74% using the other antibiotics.
Three leading healthcare bodies in Scotland have called for action to reduce the environmental impact caused by medicine prescribing.
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and Faculties in Scotland, Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the Royal College of General Practitioners Scotland have all
urged policymakers to enable a more sustainable approach to prescribing.
This includes prioritising the introduction of electronic prescribing across the NHS, introducing the requirement for an environmental impact in NHS medicines
procurement and improving the availability of data about the environmental impact of medicines.
"We call on Scottish government, including the chief medical officer, to enable the delivery of a realistic medicine approach to prescribing by developing a
supportive infrastructure for green social prescribing across Scotland," said the healthcare professionals in a joint statement.
They have called on the pharmaceutical industry to make information about the environmental impact of medicines readily available in a standardised data format.
In its response to a Freedom of Information Request (FOI), the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) has confirmed a net decrease of 101 pharmacies
in England - with 371 closures and 270 new contracts. Meanwhile, the General Pharmaceutical Council data projected a drop of 43 registered pharmacies in England,
Wales, and Scotland for the year ending March 31, 2023, compared to the preceding period.
The data, released by business advisor Christie & Co in its annual pharmacy market review on Sept. 5, revealed a total of 14,328 pharmacies across all four UK
country regions as of March 31, 2023, indicating a 0.3 per cent decrease from the previous year. Corporate operators experienced a net reduction of 249 pharmacies,
while the total number of independent operators remained consistent with 2022.
According to the study, the corporate sector saw the most substantial shift, with a 13.7 per cent reduction in businesses operating 300 or more pharmacies.
Following closely, groups managing 11 to 15 pharmacies experienced a 5.6 per cent decrease. Christie & Co attributed this shift in group size to operators
acquiring additional pharmacies through corporate disposal opportunities throughout the year.
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.
Britain has started counting possible Covid-19 reinfections in its daily coronavirus data, changing its approach to reflect the increased number of people
catching the disease for a second time as the Omicron variant predominates.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) added around 840,000 cases to the cumulative total, taking it to 17.3 million coronavirus infections reported.
Britain's daily Covid statistics previously would only count people who had tested positive for the first time to avoid double-counting people who had received multiple positive test results for the same infection.
However, with variants such as Omicron leading to an increase in reinfections, the UKHSA said it would change its method to treat positive tests as separate infections if there was at least 90 days between test results. The change took effect on Monday (January 31).
"Reinfection remained at very low levels until the start of the Omicron wave. It is right that our daily reporting processes reflect how the virus has changed," said Steven Riley, UKHSA's Director General of Data and Analytics.
Deaths caused by hepatitis C has declined by 35 per cent in England between 2015 and 2020, latest data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) revealed.
It showed that estimated prevalence of chronic hepatitis C in England has continued to fall to around 81,000 in 2020 from 129,000 in 2015, showing a considerable progress has been made towards eliminating the virus as a public health problem by 2030 in England.
Commenting on the data release, health and social care secretary Sajid Javid, said: "It is fantastic to see the significant progress that has been made in eliminating hepatitis C in England. Deaths and prevalence of the virus have fallen consistently thanks to improvements in diagnosis, access to treatments and the hard work of the NHS.
"This is another example of the UK being at the forefront of tackling serious diseases. We are on track to eliminate this virus by 2030 and I urge anyone who may be at risk to get tested as soon as possible."
The government on Wednesday (March 2) announced an investment of £260 million to support research, development and manufacturing of new drugs, devices and
diagnostics.
Of the total funding, up to £200m has been allocated for research to better access NHS data through Trusted Research Environments and digital clinical trial services, enabling availability of crucial data with the highest levels of privacy.
This will allow the NHS to deliver new life-saving treatments to patients, tackle health inequalities and improve patient care, a government release stated.
The remaining £60m will support commercial-scale manufacturing investments by companies at the leading-edge of innovation, from cell and gene therapies and earlier
and better diagnostic technologies, to medical devices.
The funding for manufacturing investments will be distributed through the new Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF), following the success of the earlier Medicines and Diagnostics Manufacturing Transformation Fund.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended elosulfase alfa for routine use in the NHS for the treatment of mucopolysaccharidosis type 4A (also known as MPS 4A and Morquio A syndrome).
Elosulfase alfa, also called Vimizin and made by BioMarin, becomes the first disease modifying treatment recommended by NICE for routine NHS use for people with this rare, severely life-limiting condition.
NICE's final draft guidance follows the collection of 'real-world' data from 69 people who received NHS-funded treatment since 2015 as part of a managed access agreement. Clinical trial evidence and data collected as part of the managed access agreement, along with expert clinical opinion, shows some long-term benefits with elosulfase alfa treatment which suggest it slows progression of MPS 4A.