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Titan PMR has been accredited by the NHS to provide electronic prescription services (EPS) to dispensing doctors. Over 1,000 of these doctors, who provide a vital service to almost 10 million people in rural communities, can now offer their patients the same level of benefits and efficiencies that electronic prescriptions and Titan PMR have brought to pharmacies around the UK. These features will also increase efficiency for dispensing doctors, who will reduce dispensing errors and improve organisation, increasing their capacity while enjoying the ability to integrate with other technologies. After a full year of testing, including six months of compliance testing at a practice in Cumbria, the new accreditation for Titan also has potential to help the NHS fulfil its target of all prescriptions being issued electronically. Currently written paper prescriptions from dispensing doctors account for around seven per cent of the total prescriptions in England - around 6.5 million each month. "Until now dispensing doctor surgeries have basically been in the digital dark ages when it comes to dispensing medicines," said Tariq Muhammad, a tech entrepreneur and CEO of Bristol-based Invatech Health, which developed Titan PMR.

The 14th Annual Community Pharmacy Conference by Sigma Pharmaceuticals began on Monday, 25 February at Sun City, South Africa. Dr. Bharat Shah, Manish Shah, and Kamal Shah, co-founders of the company, extended a warm welcome to the delegates in attendance at the event. In a written message, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak extended his best wishes to all the participants attending the conference. The message read: "This conference is timely as it coincides with the launch of the Pharmacy First, a new initiative launched across England that will enable patients to receive treatments for seven common conditions directly from a pharmacist without the need for a GP appointment or prescription." "We are all grateful for the tremendous contributions that pharmacists make to our NHS. The fantastic work you do is critical to the success of Pharmacy First and many other initiatives."

The GP Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (GP CPCS) is also delivering 'unexpected' insights to help transform patient care and facilitate integrated working between pharmacists and GPs across Greater Manchester. Since April 2021, almost 14,000 appointments have been referred using the GP CPCS across the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership - a figure that is growing as its success gathers pace and they continue to support practices to increase referral activity. Joshua Nolan, a pharmacist at Internet Pharmacy in Heywood, one of the first in the area to join the referral service, said: "The number of patients we're seeing from GP CPCS has been building consistently month-on-month. On average we see around 50 patients, but recently we recorded 53 in just one week." The pharmacist, who has been practising for six years and is also an independent prescriber, believes the GP CPCS has helped bring about more awareness to the clinical services community pharmacy can offer.

In a bid to amplify the role of pharmacists in clinical services and vaccination programs, the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has embarked on a groundbreaking collaboration with Aston University. This initiative, funded by Innovate UK Business Connect, aims to explore the feasibility and impact of integrating additional healthcare interventions within community pharmacies. "The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) research project represents an exciting opportunity to advance the role of pharmacists in patient care," remarked Alison Jones, Director of Policy at PDA. "This project will be an important part of that evolution, supporting individual pharmacists to have more opportunities to practice and so develop more fulfilling careers." Led by the PDA and Aston University, the project will commence imminently, focusing on the Priory Community Pharmacy in Dudley.

Responding to a new National Audit Office (NAO) report that indicated that NHS England's Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) needs improvements, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has expressed concerns that the plan may not adequately address the needs of GPs. Published in June 2023, the workforce plan estimated that the NHS's health workforce will need to grow from 1.4m full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in 2021-22 to between 2.3m and 2.4m FTE workers in 2036-37, an increase of 65 per cent to 72 per cent. However, the NAO report highlighted that the workforce modelling has significant weaknesses, including a complex design; manual adjustments; optimistic future assumptions and limited public communication of their uncertainty; and modelling outputs that could not be fully replicated. To improve the modelling, the report recommended exploring the uncertainty of these assumptions and considering potential outcomes if they do not materialize as expected. Additionally, it suggested including full integration of the different parts of the modelling pipeline to minimise manual adjustments.

After struggling with COVID, Hemant Petal is back to good health, and now he is on a mission to reduce "health inequalities". Speaking at the SIGMA Conference 2023, he spoke about his new role as Clinical Lead, Health Inequalities and Population Health Management, SE Essex Alliance, Essex ICB. "So, my new role is outside pharmacy, nothing to do with pharmacy. But it is important, I feel that I share some of my insights about the work that I'm doing that might benefit you," he said. Elaborating on the role of integrated care boards (ICBs), he said that they are designed to enhance coordination and collaboration across different healthcare providers and settings. The representatives from hospitals, community services, retail and social care meet on a monthly basis to "look at where there are issues to be resolved, perhaps what can be done to improve the healthcare services."

To combat the effects of climate change, the Integrated Care System (ICS) in South East London (SEL) has initiated a pioneering inhaler recycling project. Supported by NHS England and spanning 20 community pharmacies across the region, the project marks the first nationally-funded pilot of its kind in England, targeting the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from improperly disposed inhalers. The project, which commenced at King's College Hospital in February 2024, focuses on the recycling of pressurised metered-dose inhalers. These inhalers, due to their propellant content, contribute significantly to environmental harm, emitting gases equivalent to driving 71.8 miles in a standard petrol car.

NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB)'s decision to withdraw gluten free prescriptions for people with coeliac disease across Leeds and Calderdale has disappointed Coeliac UK. In a statement released on Thursday, the charity, which provides support and advice to those living with the disease, has raised "grave concerns" about the decision, warning that it will have a detrimental impact on the coeliac community. The policy is currently implemented across the ICB's other places including Bradford district and Craven, Kirklees and Wakefield district, preventing coeliac patients from accessing gluten free bread and flour mix on prescription. NHS West Yorkshire ICB wants to align its gluten free prescribing guidelines across its five places. But the charity is worried that the additional cost of gluten free staple products will poses a real challenge to maintaining the gluten-free diet, which is the only treatment for the condition.

Wes Streeting MP has been appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the new Labour Government. The Ilford North MP will now take on the critical role of overseeing the National Health Service (NHS) and implementing Labour's ambitious health agenda. At the core of the Labour Party's healthcare reform manifesto is enhancing accessibility to primary and community healthcare. This involves implementing a 'Community Pharmacist Prescribing Service,' to empower pharmacists with independent prescribing rights where clinically suitable. This initiative aims to alleviate the strain on GP practices and enhance service accessibility. Additionally, the manifesto proposes piloting Neighbourhood Health Centres, to integrate various healthcare services -such as family doctors, district nurses, and mental health specialists under one roof.