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International day for persons with disabilities on 3rd December - Note on schemes for the welfare of persons with disabilities and concessions available to them. The Government of India is committed for the realization of full participation, protection of rights, and equal opportunities to all including persons with disabilities. India is a country where most of the population lives in the rural areas and accessing the health and rehabilitation services has always been a challenge. In a Backgrounder issued yesterday, a brief summary of the major steps initiated by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment in this direction were given. Following is the Background Note on the legislative and Institutional framework along with the major schemes of the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment for the welfare of the People with Disabilities (PwDs). The Note also contains information on facilities and concessions available to PwDs under other central schemes which are being run by other Union Ministries. OFFER ON INTERNATIONAL DISABILITY DAY Wheelchair @ 4499 INR Tricycle @ 6500 INR Legislative Framework: There are four important legislations dealing on disabilities issues- The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, has laid the foundation of recognition of rights for Persons with Disabilities and has facilitated development of specific programmes for their education, rehabilitation, employment, non-discrimination and social security. The Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992 regulates and monitors training of rehabilitation professionals and personnel. The National Trust for the welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999, aims at enabling and empowering persons with disabilities to live independently as fully as possible in their community. Mental Health Act, 1987, address to the specific needs of persons with ment

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a new diagnostic guidance to enhance CYP2C19 genotype testing to guide clopidogrel use for patients who have suffered an ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack. Published in July, the diagnostic guidance also emphasised the vital role of pharmacists and pharmacies in the implementation of CYP2C19 genotype testing used to guide prescribed antiplatelet medication. According to the NICE guidance, pharmacists with their expertise in pharmacogenomics and patient medication management, will be integral in interpreting test results and recommending appropriate antiplatelet therapy. It also highlighted the need for close collaboration with other healthcare professionals to ensure effective implementation across various care settings for stroke patients. The diagnostics advisory committee, a standing advisory committee of NICE, agreed that it should be possible to gather samples for genotype testing at a location that is convenient for the person having the test and highlighted the role of pharmacies as accessible locations for CYP2C19 genotype testing.The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a new diagnostic guidance to enhance CYP2C19 genotype testing to guide clopidogrel use for patients who have suffered an ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack. Published in July, the diagnostic guidance also emphasised the vital role of pharmacists and pharmacies in the implementation of CYP2C19 genotype testing used to guide prescribed antiplatelet medication. According to the NICE guidance, pharmacists with their expertise in pharmacogenomics and patient medication management, will be integral in interpreting test results and recommending appropriate antiplatelet therapy. It also highlighted the need for close collaboration with other healthcare professionals to ensure effective implementation across various care settings for stroke patients. The d

Pharmacy professionals to be included as key stakeholders in the implementation, delivery and evaluation of a wide range of genomic services, said the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS). RPS's statement has been developed in collaboration with pharmacy organisations who have co-badged the report, such as the British Oncology Pharmacy Association, the UK Clinical Pharmacy Association, Association of Pharmacy Technicians and the College of Mental Health Pharmacy. It looks at current and future roles for pharmacy professionals in genomic medicine across many aspects of practice such as person-centred care and collaboration, professional practice, education, leadership, management and research. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in the UK have already established roles in the application of genomic medicine in some areas of practice, such as antimicrobial stewardship and infectious diseases, and the management of certain genetic conditions, such as cystic fibrosis. The society believes, the current role of pharmacy professionals in genomics can be expanded upon in the future to both lead and support many relevant aspects of genomic implementation. These are described across all healthcare sectors, within the Genome UK strategy produced by the UK Government, and within the implementation plans published in England, Scotland and Wales. Lead for Pharmacogenomics at RPS Sophie Harding said: "Pharmacy professionals are the gatekeepers of medication safety and efficacy across all areas of healthcare. They are skilled at interpreting complex scientific data and use evidence-based medicine to maximise the benefits of treatments for patients, whilst supporting shared decision-making with patients and the multidisciplinary team.

Perrigo, one of the world's largest providers of self-care products has appointed Ronald van Workum as Sales Director Germany, Customer Strategy & Implementation DACH Cluster. van Workum will continue to drive the successful integration of HRA Pharma into the Perrigo network, with a focus on well-known brands such as Abtei, Compeed and Granu Fink. He most recently held the position of Head of Key Account Management for Perrigo in Europe, based in the Netherlands. Prior to joining Perrigo he worked for Procter & Gamble in several countries, including Singapore, and in various functions, including: Market Strategy Planning Manager for the Gillette brand; and in Europe as multifunctional Team Leader Emerging Channels. The company also announced Tobias Geiger has been promoted from his role as Finance Director of the Perrigo DACH Cluster, which he held since April 2020, to General Manager of the Perrigo DACH Cluster. During this time, he successfully supported the implementation and stabilisation of the DACH cluster. He also led several business optimisations with his teams, such as the implementation of SAP in Switzerland, process digitalisation and the creation of a DACH Finance Business Partner Model. Before joining Perrigo, Geiger worked for Sanofi for more than 10 years in various leadership positions in DACH and in Latin America.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has notified Community Pharmacy England (CPE) that they will no longer be able to implement the new hub and spoke models from 1 January 2025 as initially planned. The delay comes after the General Election, which put the progress of these amendments on hold. The DHSC is currently briefing new ministers across all policy areas, including hub and spoke dispensing between different pharmacy owners. As this process will take time, the implementation will not proceed as originally scheduled. CPE has stated that it does not yet have a clear timeline and will provide an update to the sector once more information becomes available. Malcolm Harrison, CEO of the Company Chemists' Association (CCA), expressed disappointment over the continued delays in fulfilling commitments made in the 2019 contractual framework agreement to support pharmacies.

The regulatory amendments proposed will enable pharmacists to dispense medicines in their original packaging for private prescriptions starting this Autumn, according to the Department of Health and Social Care. In the recently published draft OPD regulations, the DHSC has indicated that the alterations, permitting pharmacists to vary the dispensed quantity by up to 10 per cent to avoid splitting medicine packs, will be implemented for private prescriptions 'immediately upon the enforcement of the Human Medicines Amendment Regulations in the autumn,' as highlighted in a briefing by Community Pharmacy England. CPE stated that the regulations related to NHS prescriptions will come into effect when the pharmaceutical terms of service regulations expressly apply the OPD amendments. Moreover, new directive mandating the dispensing of sodium valproate products solely in their original packaging (except when an assessment of risk necessitates an alternative approach) will align with the rollout of the private prescription regulations during the autumn. CPE further noted that these regulations are currently in draft, indicating that they are not currently in effect and may undergo revisions prior to their implementation.

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) is calling on NHS England and its member to pause and reflect before further implementing the pharmacy contraception service. NPA board met on Tuesday (25 April) to discuss the Pharmacy Contraception Service and the board decided that - with the community pharmacy sector at breaking point - it cannot support the immediate roll out of this service. The association believes that with no new funding for the service, and all existing funds in effect already allocated to other pharmacy activity, any payments to the sector for delivery of the oral contraception service will ultimately be clawed back by NHS England. Tweeting after the meeting yesterday, the NPA said: "We can't tell pharmacy owners what they can and can't do. But we can tell them the facts; fact number one is that with no new funding currently available everyone will be a loser from the implementation of this service on the current terms." NPA Vice-Chair Jay Badenhorst added: "We cannot be expected to take on more and more services without the increase in funding necessary to deliver them effectively. Meanwhile, taking on additional work when current workload already exceeds capacity risks impacting negatively on the overall quality of care people experience in pharmacies. We still believe this could, in future, be a great new pharmacy service, but not without the extra funding necessary to deliver it safely and effectively. We want to offer women this extra support, but if it's worth doing it's worth doing properly."

The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) has offered a new resource to help countries self-assess readiness of their regulations to enable pharmacist-delivered vaccination services and, where needed, to implement such regulations. Developed by FIP's Regulators Advisory Group, it covers broad pharmacist-led roles related to vaccination from supply chain management to administration and prescribing. "This new resource from FIP is based on the experiences of professional regulators in countries where pharmacy-led vaccination has been successfully introduced and regulated. With it, we aim to support regulators, policymakers and national organisations in developing strategies or enabling regulatory frameworks in countries where the pharmacy workforce has a limited role in vaccination strategies so that it can contribute further to the global imperative of improving immunisation coverage," said Brett Simmonds, group chair. The "Pharmacy-led vaccination services: Regulatory self-assessment and implementation tool" aims to help identify strengths and areas for improvement in order to inform vaccination policy and planning efforts.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has appointed Robbie Turner as chief transformation officer, to work closely with LPCs as part of its newly launched Transforming Pharmacy Representation (TAPR) programme. PSNC launched the TAPR Programme in response to the contractor vote in favour of the Review Steering Group's proposals. As part of the programme - alongside actioning the recommendations for PSNC - there will be support for LPCs to implement their proposals. Williams will be responsible for leading, driving, and having oversight of the TAPR workstream to increase efficiency and outcomes across the network of LPCs in England. This will include the provision of specialist hands-on guidance and support to LPC members and officers, to promote implementation of the RSG proposals, best practice and challenging the status quo. Williams was formerly chief officer of Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire LPC and subsequently Director for England and Director of Pharmacy and Member Experience at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

The Company Chemists Association (CCA)'s workforce finding showed that by 2024 eight years' worth of growth of the pharmacist workforce will have been funnelled away from community pharmacies. "In 2019, when NHS leaders realised they were unable to find enough GPs to meet the public's needs, they hastily decided to recruit pharmacists and other healthcare professionals to fill the gaps. This was implemented without any corresponding efforts to increase the supply of pharmacists, creating huge shortages," said CCA. "The bulk of the NHS's recruitment drive was paid for using additional money ringfenced by the NHS - the £2.4bn Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS). We estimate over the life course of ARRS funding (2019-2024), the equivalent of eight years of growth in the number of pharmacists in England will have been funnelled directly into primary care at the expense of other sectors. At the current rate, CCA estimate that community pharmacy will have experienced the equivalent of three fallow years by 2024. To ensure the pharmacy network is protected and able to take pressure off other parts of the NHS, there are several urgent measures which must be implemented. Countering the impact of primary care recruitment: Community pharmacists should be commissioned to provide 'packages of care' on behalf of GPs, rather than taking pharmacists away from accessible high street settings.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has created a new NIHR Research Delivery Network (RDN) to support the successful delivery of health and social care research in England. The network, which will start operating from next year, will play a critical and active role in implementing government policies. It will support in implementing the Life Sciences Vision, the Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery vision, and policy for life sciences research and development. The new network would be mainly working on growing the amount of commercial clinical research as its key strategic ambition. Also, NIHR RDN will be responding to the findings of the Lord O'Shaughnessy review, which set out a clear blueprint for how the UK can return to its global leadership role.

Leading pharmacy group Weldricks has strengthened its commitment to providing the highest quality of care to the communities it serves by implementing the RPS Daffodil Quality Improvement Standards for Community Pharmacy. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) on Monday (20 November) announced that Weldricks will soon be rolling out the Daffodil Standards across half its stores in South Yorkshire. Developed in partnership with UK charity Marie Curie, the RPS Daffodil Standards serve as a framework for improving the quality of palliative and end-of-life care provided by community pharmacy teams. Amy Marlin, Superintendent Pharmacist of Weldricks, commented that the implementation of the RPS Daffodil Standards is "another step forward in our journey to provide the highest quality of care to the communities we serve."

Acknowledging the ongoing challenges in delivering the required IT systems for the scheduled launch of the Pharmacy First service on January 31, NHS England reported progress in fulfilling 'many' commitments outlined in its plan to enhance primary care access during a board meeting on Thursday. However, it noted that the digital infrastructure supporting Pharmacy First, included in the £645 million fresh funding for community pharmacy, will require additional time for implementation. "Delivery remains challenging due to changes needed in digital infrastructure, and we are working with suppliers to support January implementation," NHSE said. "A public campaign is planned for 2024." The Pharmacy First service allows pharmacists to supply prescription-only medicines for seven common health conditions (sinusitis, sore throat, earache, infected insect bite, impetigo, shingles, and uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women), eliminating the need for a GP visit. Meanwhile, NHSE is leveraging the widespread accessibility of pharmacies by expanding blood pressure monitoring and introducing direct prescribing of clinically safe oral contraceptives-an initiative that has been well-received.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has finally published its response to the 2022 consultation on hub and spoke dispensing. Considering the consultation evidence and further discussions, the government has expressed its intention to progress the proposals for enabling hub and spoke models across different legal entities as soon as possible. This will be achieved by using the enabling powers outlined in Part 2 of the Medicines and Medical Devices Act 2021 (MMDA) to amend the Medicines Act 1968 and the HMRs. Furthermore, the DHSC has decided to proceed with the implementation of the two models of hub and spoke dispensing that it consulted on. The government response to the consultation reads: "Having considered the responses, the government intend to proceed to implement the necessary changes to medicines legislation to remove the current restrictions that prevent the hub and spoke dispensing models from operating across different legal entities found in section 10 of the Medicines Act 1968.

Patients are highly satisfied with the new Pharmacy First service, which enables pharmacists to assess and treat patients for seven common conditions, according to a survey by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA). Nearly 100 NPA members participated in the snapshot poll conducted at the end of the first full week of the service. Nine in ten respondents (87 per cent) said that "most or all patients expressed satisfaction" with the service they received. However, many independent community pharmacy owners are facing challenges in implementing the service. While 56 per cent of pharmacy owners surveyed expressed feeling "motivated" by the new service, a larger proportion (70 per cent) indicated being "under additional pressure." More than 30 per cent of the respondents found implementation of the service "harder" than they had expected.

There is a clear opportunity for community pharmacists and their teams to lead best practice when it comes to supporting the ongoing health needs of older people. As the global population continues to age, the demand for specialised healthcare services tailored to the elderly is rapidly increasing. Community pharmacists, with their accessible locations and frequent interactions with patients, are uniquely positioned to play a pivotal role in addressing this growing need. The ageing population presents a complex set of health challenges, including multiple chronic conditions, polypharmacy, and increased susceptibility to adverse drug reactions. Community pharmacists, armed with their extensive knowledge of medications and their effects, can serve as the first line of defence in managing these issues. By leveraging their expertise, they can implement best practices that not only improve the quality of life for older individuals but also reduce the burden on the broader healthcare system. One of the primary areas where community pharmacists can make a significant impact is in medication management. As people age, they often find themselves taking multiple medications for various conditions. This polypharmacy can lead to dangerous drug interactions, side effects, and compliance issues. Community pharmacists can lead the way in implementing comprehensive medication reviews, ensuring that each patient's drug regimen is optimised for their specific needs and minimising potential risks.

Community pharmacies, like any business, face financial challenges, and one significant concern is managing cash flow. Your business requires cash flow to pay for stock, suppliers, operational costs, taxes and service bank debts and these need to be matched with cash inflows from NHS remuneration, Over The Counter (OTC) sales and HMRC VAT refunds otherwise you could find yourself in a vicious circle. If cash flow is not monitored, you will find the business juggling to settle its liabilities as they fall due. If suppliers are not paid on time, they will not send vital supplies which in turn results in customers going elsewhere. If staff/locums are not paid on time, your patients will suffer due to lack of staff or even poor service levels from demotivated staff. HMRC can issue debt recovery proceedings against the business if debts remain unpaid. Lenders will be keeping a keen eye on the management accounts to ensure the business remains strong and is able to settle its financial obligations as they fall due. Let's explore how UK community pharmacies can identify potential cash flow problems and implement strategies to navigate these challenges effectively. Dispensed items If you are experiencing a drop in the average number of items you are dispensing over time, then it could mean customers could be going elsewhere. Loss of customers will mean less income for the business, and it is always difficult to get them back especially when they have gone to a local competitor. You need to keep an eye on this indicator and investigate any drop in numbers. Implement alternative strategies as to how you may increase this for example through partnerships with local community centres, GP surgeries, colleges, etc.

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.

NHS England has confirmed the initial sites that will test and implement Martha's Rule in the first phase of the programme. This follows the announcement in February regarding NHSE funding for the major patient safety initiative for this financial year. The scheme is named after Martha Mills, who died from sepsis at the age of 13 in 2021. She had been treated at King's College Hospital, London, where a failure to escalate her to intensive care and a lack of response to her family's concerns about her deteriorating condition contributed to her death. Martha's Rule aims to provide a consistent and understandable way for patients and families to seek an urgent review if their or their loved one's condition deteriorates and they are concerned this is not being responded to. NHS England on Monday (27 May) announced that the scheme will be implemented at 143 hospital sites across the country by March 2025.

NHS England has announced a phased implementation for mandatory multi-sector rotations in the Foundation Pharmacist Training Programme, delaying the full rollout to the 2027/28 training year. Under the General Pharmaceutical Council's Standards for Initial Education and Training of Pharmacists (2021), multi-sector rotations - where trainees spend at least 13 weeks in a different pharmacy setting- were initially planned for all trainees starting in 2026/27. These rotations are designed to enhance pharmacists' adaptability, multi-professional collaboration, and ability to deliver person-centred care across healthcare systems. Acknowledging significant progress from pharmacy employers in developing these programmes, NHS England cited current workforce pressures as a key reason for introducing a phased approach. "We are mindful of the current pressures faced by pharmacy teams and the broader healthcare sector and greatly appreciate your continued commitment to delivering high-quality training. To support pharmacy teams in continuing to deliver high quality training, mandatory rotations will be delayed, and a phased approach will be implemented," David Webb, chief pharmaceutical officer for England and Samantha Illingworth, director of education quality and reform at NHS England, wrote in a letter to training programme providers.