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The results of the Community Pharmacy IT Group's (CP ITG's) IT arrangements survey revealed that 83 per cent of the respondents support the goal of going paperless. The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) asked community pharmacy teams to complete the survey between late 2021 and October 2022. The survey was designed to gather information on frontline pharmacy teams' perspectives about community pharmacy IT and their pharmacies' IT arrangements. It was found that more than half of pharmacies experience at least one IT outage per month (lasting at least one hour). Over 40% reported poor mobile phone signal and limited internet connectivity options at their pharmacy. 80% agreed that mobile devices would help working within pharmacy, but most reported no laptop and no tablet device available for use in the pharmacy

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and the charity Marie Curie have developed a consultation on 'professional standards for palliative and end of life care for community pharmacy'. The consultation will be open for four weeks for community pharmacists, organisations with a role in community pharmacy or palliative/end of life care, or patients or carers with first-hand experience of palliative and end of life care to share their views until 1st December 2022. Through this consultation, Society aims to that ensure the standards are clear, relevant, current, and fit for purpose from the perspective of the community pharmacy team, the wider health team and patients/carers. "The final standards will be published in 2023 and will help community pharmacies across the UK to self-assess and continuously improve their palliative, end of life and bereavement care," said RPS.

A University College London team of researchers has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) programme that can identify minute brain anomalies that lead to epileptic seizures. The algorithm, used in the Multicentre Epilepsy Lesion Detection project (MELD) and which reports locations of abnormalities in cases of drug-resistant focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) - a major cause of epilepsy - was developed by a multinational team who used more than 1,000 patient MRI scans from 22 international epilepsy centres. Brain regions known as FCDs have evolved improperly and frequently lead to drug-resistant epilepsy. Surgery is usually used to treat it, however, finding the lesions on an MRI is a constant problem for doctors because MRI scans for FCDs can appear normal. The scientists employed about 300,000 places throughout the brain to quantify cortical properties from the MRI scans, such as how thick or folded the cortex/brain surface was.

Blackwells Chemist, a community pharmacy in South East London did not meet all the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) standards. The pharmacy was inspected on Thursday (01 June) and it was found it did not keep all its records up to date and accurate, particularly its responsible pharmacist records. Investigation report stated that the principle of Governance and principle of Services, including medicines management was 'not met at all'. Under the principle Governance, the report stated: "The pharmacy generally manages the risks associated with its services adequately. People using the pharmacy can provide feedback or raise concerns. And staff generally protect people's personal information well. Team members know what to do to help protect the welfare of a vulnerable person. The pharmacy has written procedures, but these are not easily accessible to Team members to refer to. And they are not regularly updated. So, they may be less useful to staff, and may not reflect current best practice." In the inspection it was found that the pharmacy does not always store its medicines properly. It cannot show that it stores all its medicines requiring cold storage at the appropriate temperatures.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and Pharmacist Support hosted a roundtable on the impact of pharmacy workforce wellbeing on patient safety on Wednesday (17 May). It also released its annual Workforce Wellbeing Survey which showed continued pressures on pharmacy teams. The discussion explored the actions needed to support staff so they can continue providing safe and effective patient care and included representatives from the NHS, professional bodies, employers, trade unions, education and regulators. A report of the roundtable will be published in the summer. Amandeep Doll, RPS Head of Professional Belonging, said: "We know that pharmacy teams go above and beyond for their patients, but are also under enormous pressure. "Now more than ever, we need to strive to make the pharmacy profession more inclusive and ensure that everyone's wellbeing is supported. "It is vital that we do all we can to encourage people into pharmacy and to support them so they can enhance their skills, develop their careers, and continue to deliver high-quality patient care. "This discussion was a welcome step and showed that making a difference for staff wellbeing requires a concerted effort from stakeholders across the whole of pharmacy.

The government has unveiled its much awaited 'NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan' to tackle the staff shortage in the pharmacy sector. The plan set out an ambition to increase the training places for pharmacists to around 5,000 places by 2031/32. David Webb, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England, in his open letter to pharmacy professionals said: "The NHS LTWP sets out how we can build on changes, addressing the changing needs of patients over the next 15 years, by closing the current workforce shortfall through funding for increased education and training places and a comprehensive retention strategy." The plan commits to expand training places for pharmacists by 29% to around 4,300 by 2028/29 and Grow the number of pharmacy technicians in future years. "The development of independent prescribing as part of initial education and training is a gamechanger for pharmacists, patients and the NHS, with approximately 2,800 newly registered pharmacist independent prescribers due to join the workforce every year from September 2026," said Webb. "This will be transformational for all pharmacy teams, creating improved access and quality of care for patients and, importantly, a more flexible workforce with skills that are equally applicable in all pharmacy settings, enabling multi-professional clinical teams to work in new ways."

The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has republished a three-year-old report which underscores the vital role of community pharmacists and pharmacy t echnicians in a 'modern NHS' amid speculations that the government is set to announce plans to enhance the role of community pharmacy teams. PDA's 2019 report which "took three year to compile" highlighted significant empirical evidence and made recommendations to develop the roles of both community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, and the skill mix required to meet patients' needs. It examined in detail the role of pharmacy technicians in community pharmacy. The PDA still that pressure on the NHS can be managed much more effectively through the better use of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. In the community pharmacy setting, it is evident that if the further development of the pharmacist's role is to be facilitated and pharmacists are to become more patient facing in the future, an extended role and greater responsibility for pharmacy technicians is not only desirable, but ultimately it is essential.

Pharmacy bodies have urged the Health Select Committee to hold the government to account on pharmacy funding and workforce challenges. In a show of unity, leaders from the sector came together to write a joint letter to the chair of the committee and former health secretary Jeremy Hunt and bring to his attention how financial pressures worsened by nearly a decade of a real-term decrease in funding have made the sector virtually untenable. The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC)'s recently published 'Pharmacy Pressures Survey' confirms how this has had an impact on pharmacy contractors, their teams as well as patients. The survey found that 91 per cent of pharmacies are experiencing staff shortages. At the same time, demand for community pharmacists has risen - nine in ten pharmacy teams reported a significant increase in phone calls from patients about prescriptions, and 86 per cent reported a rise in requests for healthcare advice. The letter to Jeremy Hunt is signed on behalf of the four chief executives of the PSNC, the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp), the Company Chemists' Association (CCA) and the National Pharmacy Association (NPA).

PHOENIX UK and the British Heart Foundation has joined hands for a charity partnership to continue the ongoing commitment of improving heart health across the UK. The PHOENIX team have set the donation goal of £20,000 by June 2023 and are set to take on a range of exciting challenges over the course of the next year, such as a Tough Mudder and the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge, all in a bid to raise funds for the heart health charity. Nigel Swift, Managing Director of Rowlands, PHOENIX UK's largest community pharmacy member organisation, commented: "We are thrilled to be partnering with The British Heart Foundation. Its lifesaving research perfectly aligns with our mission across PHOENIX UK - to enable more people to live happy and healthy lives - and so we look forward to raising vital funds and supporting the excellent work of the charity." Hayley Gough, Community Relationship Manager at The British Heart Foundation, added, "It's fantastic to see the team at PHOENIX UK commit to raising so much money for The British Heart Foundation. We can't wait to see all that they achieve and are so grateful for their fundraising efforts."

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has expressed its concerns over sustained pressures on medicines supply that are having a very serious impact on community pharmacy teams and their patients. It has asked contractors and their teams to continue using its regular reporting tools to help them demonstrate the scale of the problems to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and to support escalations as needed. The committee said: "The sustained increases in price concessions that we have seen so far in 2022 - with more than 100 concessions being granted in some months - show no signs of abating, and we know that many pharmacies now find themselves in a critical situation trying to source medicines in timely manner and facing significant financial risk due to greater uncertainty around expected reimbursement prices for a large number of medicines." "We know that some concessions being imposed by the Department do not match contractors' experience on the ground, and we would ask all contractors to continue reporting pricing issues to us on a regular basis to support our representations: Report product over Drug Tariff price."

Pharmacists from BAME backgrounds still face higher levels of discrimination, harassment, bullying, and career obstacles compared to their white counterparts, the Pharmacy Workforce Race Equality Standard (PWRES) report has revealed. Published by NHSE England, this report underscores the persistent presence of inequality, emphasising the crucial need for all stakeholders in the pharmacy sector to prioritise addressing these issues. The PWRES report indicates that pharmacy team members of Black ethnic backgrounds are less likely to perceive equal opportunities for career advancement or promotion within their trust. Additionally, female pharmacy team members from BAME backgrounds report higher incidents of personal discrimination in the workplace. The report also highlights an overrepresentation of pharmacy technicians from BAME backgrounds in lower-paid roles. "It is shocking and unacceptable to see that across all indicators the BME staff experience is worse than their white counterparts," said Tase Oputu, Chair of RPS in England.

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.

Numark Pharmacy is hosting an event today (December 4) to mark the takeover of one of the former Lloyds Pharmacy stores in Cumnock, Scotland. It has renamed the acquired pharmacy on Tanyard as Rowlands Pharmacy Cumnock HC, which will be reopened to the community on Monday. Rowlands Pharmacy Cumnock HC, which is the latest to reopen in Scotland, will be run by Pharmacy manager Meghan Mcewan, supported by a team of colleagues from the local community. At the new branch, the team will oversee prescription dispensary, vaccination services, over-the-counter medications, emergency contraception, and medication review.

A community pharmacist was applauded for his 'quick-thinking' action in treating a Co Down woman with a fatal bee sting. Joan Johnson, from Moira, was stung on her scalp in her home garden. After the bite, she noticed allergic reactions on her neck and ears with severe itching and redness. However, she was advised to visit her local pharmacy by the GP where the pharmacist, Stephen Joyce, quickly administered life-saving antihistamine and an adrenaline injection while an ambulance was called. Joan hailed the 'treatment' and the 'professionalism' of the whole team for saving her life. "What was just a simple bee-sting, quickly became something very serious. On arrival at the pharmacy on the advice from my GP, I was dealt with very promptly and Stephen was summoned and immediately took control of the situation. "I was given an urgent antihistamine, but quickly started feeling lightheaded and faint. The pharmacy team assisted me to a chair and called an ambulance," she said.

In partnership with the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust (LTHT) has recently established an innovative cardiometabolic clinic. The clinic focuses on reducing cardiovascular risk in people with diabetes who have recently been discharged from LTHT following a heart attack. It is delivered jointly by the cardiology department at Leeds General Infirmary and the diabetes services at the Trust. This is a patient-centred approach to reducing that risk, with pharmacist-delivered clinics scheduled for six to eight weeks after the heart attack. Stephen Wheatcroft, Professor of Cardiometabolic Medicine and Consultant Cardiologist at LTHT, said: "This is an exciting and innovative development, one of the first in the country. Previously, Type 2 diabetic patients presenting with heart issues would have been treated by two separate specialty teams. This is the first time there has been a specific clinic combining the cardiac and diabetes team working together. "We aim to reduce the risk for patients, with earlier multidisciplinary hospital care, to help discharged patients achieve better diabetes control, through improved medication support and optimisation, reducing the need for further treatment and future hospital stays. Overall, it will mean a better patient experience, with improved monitoring and information about treatment options, along with a reduction in waiting times for review in a specialist clinic."

NHS England and NHS Improvement published on May 26 the findings of the Fuller 'stocktake' - setting out how primary care can work with partners across health and care to best meet the needs of their local communities. Dr Claire Fuller's report lays emphasis on the essential role of primary care and the potential of integrated neighbourhood teams in reducing the burden of ill health and tackling health inequities. It commends community pharmacy for keeping "its doors open to the public throughout" the pandemic whilst being "among the most recognisable of a multitude of dedicated staff delivering care around the clock in every neighbourhood in the country". The report highlights "recruitment and retention challenges across the wider primary care workforce" including in community pharmacy. Stressing the importance of community pharmacy teams in urgent care and prevention, including early diagnosis of cancers, the report points out that pharmacists could play "a more active role in signposting eligible people to screening and supporting early diagnosis, building on a number of successful pilots such as those from the Accelerate, Coordinate, Evaluate (ACE) programme".

Covid-19 has accelerated a culture change for community pharmacists. Throughout the pandemic, they have been the first line of advice, treatment and referral for common illnesses, and they have Successfully prevented countless unnecessary visits to A&E. The commitment of the profession to patient care has been widely recognised by both the government and the public. Despite immense pressure, pharmacy teams have risen to the challenges posed by a Global pandemic. "The extent to which pharmacists went over and above the call of duty, acting outside of their licences from a humanity point of view was extraordinary," said Tess Player, vice president and global head of expert and health influencers at GSK Consumer Healthcare, calling them the "unspoken heroes" of Covid-19. Pharmacy teams from around the world have shared with her their experiences. Pharmacists in China remained open round the clock and sourced face coverings for their community and metered out the short supply for their patients.

To ease pressure on community pharmacies, the deadline to meet the requirements of the Pharmacy Quality Scheme will be extended, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) announced today (December 15). This follows an agreement reached between the negotiator and the NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). Recognising the challenges faced by pharmacies and their contribution towards the Covid-19 vaccination programme, following additional changes have been agreed upon: Contractors will not be required to complete the Community Pharmacy Patient Questionnaire for 2021/2022; The requirement for pharmacy teams to complete a national audit (intended to be on valproate) in 2021/22 will be waived; and The requirement for pharmacy teams to complete a contractor-chosen clinical audit in 2021/22 will be waived.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in the United Kingdom, affecting nearly 50,000 men yearly. Combined with the challenges faced across healthcare during COVID-19, new figures show that prostate cancer accounts for a third of cancers not treated due to the pandemic, with 14,000 'missing patients' believed to have not undergone treatment since April 2020. It is more urgent than ever that men are encouraged to get checked, as any set-backs in diagnosis can reduce the pathways available, in turn affecting health outcomes. Community pharmacy teams play a crucial role in signposting the help available for men who may be concerned about their health. Therefore, it is vital that pharmacy teams have access to the information they need to correctly direct men to seek prostate cancer guidance. By maximising the trusted relationship between patients and their pharmacists, more can be done to identify the warning signs, helping men to get an earlier diagnosis.

A group of 21 community pharmacies in the Midlands and Yorkshire will have a new name - Pickfords Pharmacy. The group has been created by combining three independent pharmacy businesses which traded as Mr Pickford's, McGills Pharmacy and D&R Sharp. All pharmacies in the new group will be rebranded over the coming months, with a series of launch events planned by local teams. Speaking after the unveiling of the first branch to receive new signage in Hexthorpe Doncaster, Mimi Lau, Pickfords Pharmacy's chief operating officer, said: "This is a turning point for the group, with all our pharmacies operating under one name with a consistent, contemporary brand. "Initial reaction has been fantastic and very soon the name Pickfords Pharmacy will be widely recognised for the great service we deliver to customers and patients every day." Speaking of the consolidation, Nick Yarrow, the newly appointed group chief executive officer, commented: "Since the enlarged group came together last year, we have been striving to ensure that the best elements of each business have been retained for the benefit of our customers and team members. "This is part of our journey to be more than just a pharmacy - we want to be a trusted source of healthcare services at the heart of each one of the communities we serve".