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The lessons from Covid crisis applied in the future through collaboration can create a better integration between GP practices, hospitals and community pharmacies, Pharmacists Defence Association (PDA) has proposed. Stating that a more integrated healthcare system could enable pharmacists to provide effective and more efficient care to patients, the PDA proposed a model where at least two pharmacists would be working in each community pharmacy, empowered, and enabled with two-way referral pathways, having more clinical input and full access to patient records. "Such an environment could not only help to improve communications between health professionals and increase access to services for patients, but would support the NHS to operate more effectively."

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."

Usdaw, one of the major trade unions in the UK, has sought assurances for its members working in Boots, following reports that the parent company of the iconic health and beauty retailer and pharmacy chain is considering putting the business on sale next year. Walgreen Boots Alliance (WBA), the US health group that owns a stake in Boots UK since 2012, is reportedly lining up Goldman Sachs to explore the sale of business with potential valuation of £10 billion. Currently, the process is thought to be solely exploratory and may not necessarily convert into the sale of the 172-year-old firm. Usdaw national officer, Daniel Adams, said: "We note that the company declined to comment on speculation, but acknowledged that the group's strategic direction 'includes a more pointed focus on North America and on healthcare'.

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) Board has elected 14 Board members on Friday (30 March) that will govern the association for next two years. Four new Board members have been elected while five previous members left the Board after serving their terms. The period April 2023 to March 2025 will see the completion of the transition to the new Board structure. The Board will meet again on Monday (24 April) to elect the Chair and other appointments. Gareth Jones, Returning Officer for the NPA Board elections, said: "The NPA has undertaken a process of significant modernisation of organisational governance over the past years. Key elements of this process include adopting modern new Articles of Association, reforming the structure of the Board and introducing term limits. The process of electing the Board has also been changed so that half of the Board will be up for election every two years - which supports continuity and reduces the risk of a loss of organisational memory." "Recognising that the Board would already be losing a lot of organisational memory in 2023 with five members of Board standing down, the Board determined that three individuals should be co-opted onto the new Board as the process of transformation continues. In March 2025, anyone that has served 12 years or more will be required to stand down."

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) England director, Ravi Sharma, has resigned after four years on the job. He will be leaving the RPS in October to join Luton and Dunstable University Hospital, part of the Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust group, as head of pharmacy. RPS will be commencing the recruitment of a new director for England shortly and in the interim Ravi will be working with Paul Bennett, the RPS CEO, to help in delivery of key objectives and in the appointment of his successor. Paul commented: "Ravi has made a significant contribution to the organisation during his time with us. His drive and enthusiasm for advancing the recognition of the role of the Society itself and of pharmacists and professional practice is probably best reflected by his desire to ensure a real focus on personalised medicines and his work on equality and diversity, workforce wellbeing, and most recently the development of a new vision for pharmacy in England.

While responding to the consultation on hub and spoke dispensing, trade unions for pharmacists have emphasised that the patient safety and care must be the priority in hub and spoke dispensing. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has welcomed the opportunity provided by a change in legislation to enable community pharmacies to make use of hub and spoke dispensing but reaffirmed that patient care must be at the heart of future changes. With regards to patient safety, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) considers that only Model 1 is appropriate, with manageable risks related to patient safety, and is a model that has the potential to allow the whole sector to benefit fairly. In its response to the consultation on Hub and Spoke dispensing, PSNC highlighted that Model 2 in the consultation, a hub direct to patient supply of dispensed medicines, raises patient safety issues and it cannot be supported. RPS President Professor Claire Anderson said: "In all models, patients need to continue to have access to a pharmacist at the time of supply of medicines so they have the opportunity to discuss, ask questions or raise concerns, and receive appropriate information with counselling and advice.

The UK Health Security Agency on Friday said it had designated a sub-lineage of the dominant and highly transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant as a variant under investigation. BA.2, which does not have the specific mutation seen with Omicron that can be used as a proxy to easily distinguish it from Delta, is being investigated but has not been designated a variant of concern. "It is the nature of viruses to evolve and mutate, so it's to be expected that we will continue to see new variants emerge," Dr Meera Chand, incident director at the UKHSA, said. "Our continued genomic surveillance allows us to detect them and assess whether they are significant." Britain had identified 53 sequences of the BA.2 sub-lineage as of January 10, with updated figures due to be published later on Friday.

LloydsPharmacy has offered three per cent increase in base pay backdated to 1 April for its store pharmacists, the union of Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDAU) who represented them has announced. "We are pleased to announce that following a consultation of its members, the PDAU has informed the company that agreement can be reached on the company's latest offer, made in July 2022," said the PDAU. The offer made by the company also includes introduction of an overtime rate of 1.5 times basic pay for each hour worked after contracted hours. This will run for a trial period and be reviewed as part of the next pay round. "All pharmacists will receive an initial £1,000 payment under the proposed LTIP scheme, paid in April 2024. This will be to all in the bargaining unit and will not be dependent on meeting any criteria such as targets," said PDAU.

Polio has been detected in sewage samples in London, the first sign since the 1980s that the virus could be spreading in the UK, but no cases have been found, authorities said. The risk of infection from the disease, which causes paralysis in children in under one per cent of cases, was also low because of high vaccination rates, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said. The agency nevertheless encouraged parents to make sure their children were vaccinated after the discovery of the virus during routine wastewater surveillance - particularly those who may have missed shots during the Covid-19 pandemic. Nationwide vaccination levels are above the 90 per cent needed to prevent outbreaks, but London's coverage rates among the under-twos has dipped below that in recent years. NHS England will begin contacting parents of children under five who are not immunised. Polio, spread mainly through contamination by faecal matter, used to kill and paralyse thousands of children annually worldwide. There is no cure, but vaccination brought the world close to ending the wild, or naturally occurring, form of the disease.

AAH Pharmaceuticals on Tuesday (November 15) announced the promotion of its commercial director David Bound to chief executive officer of the company. In his 10 years in the company, Mr Bound has helped to drive growth across the AAH business, implementing new digital channels for customers, and developing strategic partnerships with pharmaceutical manufacturers - drawing on from his vast experience in the healthcare industry, as well as in supply chain, operations, and trading. Commenting on his promotion, he said: "I'm delighted to be taking on this role at such a critical time for healthcare. There are many challenges affecting the industry right now - from inflationary pressures to workforce issues - and I'm looking forward to tackling them head-on alongside my excellent team."

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."

AAH Pharmaceuticals (AAH) has announced the appointment of Brain Chambers as Chief Commercial Officer. "I'm proud to lead the commercial functions in AAH in my new role and broader area of responsibility." Said Brian. "I'm committed to delivering on great value for our customers and building and strengthening our supplier partnerships." Brain is associated with AAH Pharmaceuticals for more than 14 years. He joined the organisation as Business Development Manager in October 2008. His previous role in the organisation was on Sales and Marketing Director. He posted on LinkedIn: "This is a big move for me personally, but that's a side hustle. What is the main play here is AAH becoming a standalone independent wholesale business focussed on only the AAH customer and our core business and this is just one part of that.

After a series of internal pay negotiations and conciliation meetings, Boots has made a revised pay offer to its pharmacists. With the new development, the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has urged its members at Boots to "urgently respond to the Boots pay negotiations update survey on the current pay offer." It encouraged the members to complete the short survey sent to them via email. Last week, the PDA Reps Network in Boots hosted a series of virtual meetings for members that work at the company. As the element of the negotiations with Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) are ongoing, PDA could not provide more details about these meetings.

AstraZeneca said its antibody cocktail against Covid-19 would - unlike its vaccine - be priced commercially as it negotiates supply contracts with governments around the globe. "We are looking at a commercial pricing strategy. That is part of our negotiations with governments," Iskra Reic, Astra's executive vice president for vaccines and immune therapies, said in a media call on Thursday. She added that the group's main objective was to make the shot affordable and broadly available.

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) today decided to convene a new group, involving all the key stakeholders, focused on assurance of practice post-registration. The decision in today's (9 December) council meeting follows the recommendation of a working group chaired by council member and pharmacist Aamer Safdar on the role of the regulator in post-registration education and training. The new group will be tasked with articulating a set of guiding principles where patient safety is the overarching priority, after carrying out a horizon scanning exercise to pull together an understanding of the system wide approach currently in place. The working group noted that the wider approach, in relation to regulation of post-registration practice and not simply education and training, may require the GPhC reviewing and developing its own control measures, and involving patients and the public in the next stages of work. Reviewing the work on online pharmacy services, the council meeting supported the regulator's plans to continue to require pharmacy websites to be arranged so that a person cannot choose a prescription only medicine and its quantity before there has been an appropriate consultation with a prescriber.

Wockhardt UK managing director Ravindra Limaye has been chosen for honorary British awards given to foreign nationals. Limaye gets the Order of the British Empire (OBE) honour for his contribution to health, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. The honours were announced on Thursday (13). Limaye has been the chief executive of the UK arm of the Mumbai-based pharma and biotech company Wockhardt since 2019. He previously worked for another Indian pharma company Biocon, overseeing its global commercial operations. He led the company's entry into global biosimilar markets and spearheaded its operations in the US.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has backed a new framework from NHS England to reduce inappropriate prescribing of addiction-causing medicines. It believes that the new framework is a positive step towards improving patient care by supporting medicine reviews and shared decision making to help people reduce their use of medicines that are no longer providing much clinical benefit. The society has also welcomed investment in innovative approaches to supporting patients and urged all pharmacists to refer people to such schemes. Director for England at RPS, James Davies said: "Pharmacists are well-placed to help reduce inappropriate prescribing of high strength painkillers such as opioids and other addictive medicines. "Pharmacy teams can also often spot repeat purchases of over the counter medicines by patients so are well placed to intervene and give advice on the management of chronic pain. Whilst opioids can play an important part in helping people with chronic pain there has long been a need for alternative approaches that are safer and more effective for patients.

Former health secretary Sajid Javid on Tuesday (July 12) dropped out of the leadership contest to replace Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister. "There is an abundance of both ideas and talent in our party. One of the candidates will be given the honour of becoming prime minister," Javid said in a statement. "I look forward to seeing the debate unfold and to see colleagues working together as a united Conservative Party once the leadership election is concluded." Javid and chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak resigned on July 5.

In response to Thursday (5 January)'s announcement on the proposal of new 'anti-strike' legislation, the Pharmacists Defence Association (PDA) has said that it will work with other trade unions to defend the fundamental right for workers in the sector to strike. The association believes that "industrial action should always be a last resort, especially for health professionals such as pharmacists, however having the option to strike is a fundamental right for working people in a fair and free, civilised society." "The right to strike is a fundamental right through which employees can act collectively to secure and protect pay and conditions." It added: "The Trade Union Congress (TUC) are coordinating the challenge to these proposals." The TUC said in a statement: "The Prime Minister should concentrate on fixing our public services, not attacking public sector staff. The proposed legislation would make it harder for disputes to be resolved."

Prime minister Boris Johnson announced on Wednesday (January 19) that restrictions re-imposed in England last month would be lifted by from next Thursday (January 27). In the latest development, the government has decided to end the guidance on working from home, asking employers to make adequate arrangements to return safely to work. From the start of next Thursday, mandatory certification based on vaccines and tests will end, however, organisations can still choose to use the NHS Covid Pass voluntarily. Besides, the legal mandate to wear face masks will go away from next week. Making a statement to the House of Commons on Covid-19, he said that infection levels are falling in England mainly because of the country's "extraordinary booster campaign". He noted more than 36 million Covid-19 booster jabs had been delivered, with over 90 percent of over-60s now given a third dose. "Our scientists believe it is likely that the Omicron wave has now peaked nationally," Johnson added, while cautioning "the pandemic is not over". "I encourage everyone across the country to continue with all the cautious behaviours that we know help to keep each everybody safe."