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From farm to fork initiatives to food waste reduction, Verdict Foodservice looks at how retailers in the UK are cracking down on food waste to reach the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 to halve food waste by 2030.

American healthcare technology company Omnicell has appointed Edward Platt as the new Senior Commercial Director of its UK community pharmacy division. Along with this new role, Edward, who joined Omnicell in 2015, will continue his current leadership remit for Omnicell's UK & Ireland hospital division. He will be leading a revamped commercial team, which would be responsible for increasing Omnicell's footprint of automation and consumable solutions delivered into UK community pharmacies. As part of the revamp, the company has created dedicated specialist teams to ensure the needs and challenges of community pharmacists (small independents and small multiple operators) can be fully understood and supported.

Community Pharmacy England (CPE) CEO, Janet Morrison said that the negotiations for the £645 million investment pledged to community pharmacies in 2023-25 have concluded. The government's primary care recovery plan is to be announced in a "few weeks" and negotiations for the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) from April 2024 will begin. She said: "We have finished the substantive discussions on the recovery plan but detailed discussions about implementation are ongoing and we are awaiting final clearance from the Government and the NHS. "We hope that we will be in a position to make an announcement in the next few weeks and that negotiations on the CPCF from April 2024 will commence soon after that." Morrison reminded attendees that the Primary Care Recovery Plan is "to improve access to primary care by investing £645 million over the remainder of the year".

With the chilly weather firmly settled in, it's that time of year again - cold and flu season. While there's no foolproof track to avoid getting ill, you can opt for many kinds of immunity-boosting shifts to sustain your immune system and support yourself in feeling your best! Without further bothering, here are our top 5 pieces of advice for amplifying your immunity:

Researchers are curious about curcumin to create an effective anti-infection therapeutic effect and control fungal infections in cancer patients. Curcumin could grow the fungal infection sustainability among cancer patients with candida. Thus, turmeric curcumin supplements offer a reasonably 'secure cure' against candida with minimal or no adverse effects, even when using a higher curcumin dose.

Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has cautioned that patients in the UK will continue to encounter difficulties in accessing medicines unless the government addresses supply problems and resolves the critical financial state of community pharmacies. CPE Chief Executive Janet Morrison and Mike Dent, Director of Pharmacy Funding, on Monday 19 February, gave evidence to the Health and Social Care Select Committee's Pharmacy Inquiry, highlighting the impact of ongoing medicines supply issues on pharmacies and patients. Morrison indicated that a combination of the ongoing "financial squeeze, operational pressures, and medicines supply and pricing issues" has left pharmacy businesses fighting for survival. "As the NHS continues to grapple with wider challenges, this is a battle that patients cannot afford for pharmacies to lose," she said. Morrison warned that if pharmacies continue to close, not only business owners and pharmacy teams will suffer, but patients and local communities will also face the consequences.

Pharmacy owners discussed the key concerns and priorities for the future at the Community Pharmacy England's (CPE) digital briefing event held last week (on 7 May 2024). More than 500 pharmacy owners and their representatives registered for the event, which provided them an opportunity to learn more about the committee's work in key areas and share their views on important issues. Major concerns raised by them included underfunding, dispensing at a loss, and challenges in implementing Pharmacy First. Attendees described the new service as "slow", "challenging" and "underfunded", while also highlighting the importance of improving GPs' understanding of the service.

"Barcodes are becoming obsolete, so we needed a unique selling point," comments Business Development Manager at Huxley Europe, Richard Wertheimer, celebrating the relaunch of its HuxQ10 capsules. Now boasting a rare triple certification, HuxQ10 capsules are Halal approved by Halal Trust, Kosher approval by Rabbi Adler, and certification as vegan. This milestone marks a significant step for the company, making HuxQ10 accessible to a wider audience. Coenzyme Q10, or Q10, is a naturally occurring vitamin-like substance in the body, playing a crucial role in mitochondrial biogenetics and ATP production, which is vital for cellular energy. It also acts as a powerful antioxidant, capable of regenerating alpha-tocopherol, the active form of vitamin E.

In a stirring address at the recent conference on Pharmacy at the Westminster Health Forum, Director of NHS Services at Community Pharmacy England (CPE), Alastair Buxton presented a stark assessment of the community pharmacy sector's challenges. Highlighting years of financial constraints imposed by the NHS and government, Buxton warned of a sector teetering on the edge of survival. "There have been no years of financial and operational squeezes applied by the NHS and government to the community pharmacy sector, so as a consequence, there are a lot of pharmacies that are on the on the brink of survival -battling for survival," he said. Buxton underscored the critical and indispensable role of community pharmacies in delivering essential NHS services, from dispensing medications to innovative initiatives like the Discharge Medicine Service and Contraception Service.