Group items tagged

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) will launch a new group focusing on improvement of the post-registration practice of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. The announcement follows GPhC and Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI) bringing together key stakeholders from across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on Thursday (January 27) to discuss establishment of the group. The GPhC considered recommendations from a short-life working group chaired by Council member Aamer Safdar on the potential leadership and quality assurance role of the GPhC in post-registration education and training for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Nigel Clarke, chair of the GPhC noted that there is a wide range of activity in the post-registration sphere with government and statutory education providers taking steps to make improvement.

Human Error Investigations, Root Cause Determination, and CAPA Effectiveness are organized by ComplianceOnline

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.

Diabetes Type 2: Prevention, Symptoms, and Treatment 2022 is organized by Wild Iris Medical Education, Inc. Review the underlying causes of diabetes.

The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has undertaken an additional survey of pharmacists employed in the NHS, before deciding to hold their first-ever ballot for industrial action. The PDA has more than 7,000 NHS-employed pharmacists in membership and the union is actively considering balloting those members regarding strike action. The association said: "The experience of some other unions has shown that the government's restrictive rules, designed to make it difficult for working people to lawfully take industrial action, means trade unions should test members' strength of feeling before balloting." "Trade unions are not only forced to rely upon postal ballots, but for lawful industrial action to be taken, the result must also meet three tests- at least 50% of eligible voters must vote; at least 40% of eligible voters must vote 'yes' and a majority of votes must be for 'yes'." The association is asking members in England, Northern Ireland and, Wales to show if their collective wish, insignificant enough strength, is for strike action. PDA has emailed the survey to all its members in the NHS in the three nations and will close on Tuesday 3 January.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) England Chair Thorrun Govind has called for Government action to support pharmacy teams experiencing huge demand for their services. "Pharmacy teams are under immense pressure at the moment, in common with other NHS services, and working extremely hard with health service colleagues to provide the right care for patients," said Govind. "As winter pressures mount, pharmacies see increased numbers of patients seeking support with illness and also because they have heard other areas of the health service are struggling to cope. The society has also stated staffing pressures, alongside an increase in workload has created an extra burden which takes a toll on the wellbeing of pharmacy teams. Govind added: "Issues such as medicine shortages can also take up many hours of time for pharmacy teams tracking down medicines when they could be directly helping patients. In community pharmacies, rising costs and fairly static funding are adding to business pressures. "However, pharmacies remain the most accessible part of the health service and provide expert advice to patients without the need for an appointment and are open long hours and at weekends."

The 14th Community Pharmacy Conference by Sigma Pharmaceuticals has been timely, prime minister Rishi Sunak said, noting that it coincided with the launch of Pharmacy First, a new initiative that enables 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," Sunak said in a written message. The conference was organised from 25-29 February at Sun City in Johannesburg, South Africa, under the theme 'community pharmacy in an integrated NHS'. In a recorded video address to the Sigma Conference, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said community pharmacies are 'critical' to the Labour party's mission to make the NHS 'fit for the future'. "You should be playing a much more significant role. Labour's reform agenda will get pharmacists working to the top of their licence. We want community pharmacists to play a greater role in healthcare, with more focus on their expertise in prescribing and medicines management," he said.

The results of a national NHS staff survey, published recently, revealed that frontline healthcare workers are facing record levels of discrimination at work, with 58,000 respondents reporting that they experienced "unacceptable" levels of unwanted sexual behaviour from the public last year. Concerningly, 8.67 per cent of 675,140 NHS workers who responded to the poll said they suffered sexual harassment from patients, patients' relatives, or other members of the public in 2023. Particularly, ambulance staff were affected, with nearly 25 per cent of staff reporting unwanted sexual behaviour from the public last year. According to the survey findings, 3.84 per cent of staff also encountered unwanted sexual behaviour from their colleagues. Dr Navina Evans, Chief Workforce, Training and Education Officer, described the survey results as "very distressing" and said that "such conduct should not be tolerated in the NHS." On the positive side, more NHS workers reported being happier at work and experiencing less burnout than before. Over half of the participants stated they look forward to coming to work, the highest number since 2020, as per the NHS. Dr Evans attributed this improvement to initiatives such as flexible working hours, clinical support squads to help menopausal women at work, and human resources stay advocates.

Reacting to recommendations from a UK-first independent review, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has outlined action to tackle potential bias in the design and use of medical devices. Professor Dame Margaret Whitehead, professor of public health at the University of Liverpool, was appointed to lead the review, which focused on three areas - optical devices such as pulse oximeters, AI-enabled devices, and polygenic risk scores (PRS) in genomics. The DHSC commissioned the medical devices review after concerns were raised that pulse oximeters - widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic to monitor blood oxygen levels - were not as accurate for patients with darker skin tones. There were worries that this could cause delays in treatment if dangerously low oxygen levels in such patients were missed. However, no evidence was found from NHS studies indicating that this differing performance had an impact on patient care. Accepting the report's conclusions, the DHSC has committed to several actions, such as ensuring the safe use of pulse oximeter devices across a range of skin tones within the NHS and eliminating racial bias from data sets employed in clinical studies.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) have responded to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) consultation on pharmacy supervision, which was launched in early December last year. The DSHC set out proposals to amend the Medicines Act 1968 and The Human Medicines Regulations 2012 to allow registered pharmacy technicians to work without direct supervision, which in turn will help free up pharmacists to provide more clinical care and reduce GP appointments. While the RPS supported the legislative change, it highlighted a range of topics that should be considered and clarified in regulations and guidance. According to RPS, the new concept of 'authorisation', including around documentation, accountability, and the role of superintendent pharmacist and responsible pharmacist, needs clarification.

Covid-19 vaccine maker Novavax on Wednesday said it expects revenue this year to be flat or lower as it works to improve its commercial performance and pick up market share from much larger rivals, Pfizer and Moderna. The company posted a larger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss as revenue lagged analysts' estimates. Chief executive John Jacobs said Novavax claimed just a low-single-digit percentage market share in the US during the most recent vaccination campaign, as demand for Covid vaccines was smaller than hoped and the company got its protein-based shot to market later than its messenger RNA-based rivals. "We were disappointed with that US performance," Jacobs said in an interview. He said the company's sales force was not targeted enough toward retail pharmacy chains, and that its 5-dose vials were not as convenient for use as rivals' pre-filled syringes.

The NHS England last week released a survey report on the involvement of pharmacy professionals in research, and proposed the implementation of a clinical academic training pathway for pharmacy professionals by 2030. Recommendations were made to support the embedding of research at all stages of a pharmacy professional's career. The report presented the findings of two surveys that NHS England launched in May 2022, one for individual pharmacy professionals and one for organisations, calling for evidence on clinical academic careers in pharmacy. The survey found that only a minority of the pharmacy workforce take up clinical research training opportunities. "Just under a quarter of individual respondents had applied for the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) or other research project grants, and just under half of the organisational survey respondents had supported individuals to apply for such a grant," it said.

People in the UK are increasingly relying on community pharmacies for health advice and support as they are unable to access their general practitioner (GP). According to a recent report by the Liberal Democrats, there was a significant increase in the number of patients waiting four weeks or more to see a GP in England last year, rising from 12.8 million in 2022 to 17.6 million. Responding to this research report, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) highlighted that GPs are also struggling to meet the increasing demand for their services due to severe staff shortages. Dr. Victoria Tzortziou-Brown, Vice Chair of the RCGP, stated that the average number of patients each GP is responsible for has increased by 158 compared to five years ago. Although she acknowledged that many patients are forced to wait for weeks to see their GP, she said that doctors too are grappling with "unmanageable and unsustainable workloads" and "we can't keep doing more with less."

In a significant uptick reflecting growing awareness and acceptance of mental health challenges among new and expectant mothers, NHS records reveal a striking surge in specialist support sought by over 57,000 new mothers over the past year. This figure represents a substantial 33 per cent increase compared to the 2022 data findings indicating a heightened demand for perinatal mental health services in England. Last year, the number of women accessing perinatal mental health services was 43,053 individuals. Specifically, between March 2023 and February 2024, a total of 57,170 women accessed these services, representing a significant rise from the 43,053 women who received support between March 2022 and February 2023. Contextually, this surge in demand is significant given that approximately 600,000 women give birth in England each year.