We are now stockists of the A. Vogel range of high quality herbal medicines. Visit at www.avogel.co.uk
The Department of Health published in early April 2008 a set of proposals for the development of Pharmacy services within the NHS, and they have been given wide publicity in the press.
Some of the main features include:
Pharmacists have warmly received these proposals, with the reservation based on long experience that they will remain as just proposals for consultation and discussion rather than become actual measures to be implemented by managers.
The paper can be accessed at www.dh.gov.uk/mpi
Susan retired at Christmas after nearly twenty years as a Medicines Counter Assistant. Not only are we missing her, but so many of her regular customers are too.
Diane had a serious operation in the summer, and needed a long convalescence but since Christmas has returned to work looking fit and well again. Well done!
We have been a training Pharmacy for several years, and our pre-registration Pharmacist this year is Omar Najeeb. He has been away to a special medicines manufacturing laboratory for experience in January, and in February will work in a hospital pharmacy whilst in exchange we will have a hospital based student.
Laura and Ruth are starting the dispensary module of their training programme after successfully completing the medicine sales section. A modern aspect of training programmes is the need for certain tasks to be completed to the specified standard and for the supervisor to sign a witness form. If this happens whilst your medicines are being dispensed, please understand!
Peter and Pam have undertaken the training necessary to become NHS Intermediate Level smoking cessation advisors and to supply Emergency Contraception as a NHS service.
There has been much publicity generated by our GP colleagues in Northumberland because of the terms of their NHS contract. We too are suffering because of lack of support from the Care Trust and with reductions in the prices the NHS pays us for basic drugs. For example, Simvastatin 40mg tablets which we dispense in considerable volume has been reduced by the NHS to nearly half whilst the market price remains unchanged.
There is to be a big change this year in the way our profession is regulated. After nearly 150 years the Government has decided that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society can no longer both support the practice of Pharmacy and protect the interests of the public. A new General Pharmaceutical Council will be created to maintain the register of Pharmacists. There will be some similarities with medicine, where the General Medical Council keeps the register of Doctors. The various Royal Colleges promote education and research which is what remains of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society will do. Pharmacists will not however (perhaps unfortunately for us!) have an equivalent of the BMA which is the very powerful doctors trade union.
This is a problem that we see getting worse every time we use the special bins provided for disposal of waste medicines. There has been a report on the subject by MPs that has been covered in the press. One of their suggestions is that Pharmacists should label medicines with their cost. Our experience is that this would not be good in practice. The cost of items we dispense covers the spectrum from a few tens of pence to many hundreds of pounds. Whilst some waste is inevitable, it can be minimised by a few simple guidelines;
The NHS is slowly working its way towards replacing the familiar green piece of paper bearing a Doctors scrawl near the bottom with a 21st century method of linking the surgery with the Pharmacy. We have had the new computer system installed at considerable expense (our expense, not the NHS) for well over a year and at long last we may see some progress soon, although recent government scandals over lost confidential data will not help. One of the stages that patients will have to become involved in is to formally notify the GP of which Pharmacy to send the electronic prescription to, and you may be asked to do this in the coming months.
Many people suffer from the well known coughs, flu, stomach upset and while most do come to see us and buy medicines over the counter the NHS is increasingly aware that if more did the same then there would be a welcome reduction in demand for GP appointments.
A wider range of medicines has been made available off prescription, and NHS trials have been run, in Scotland for example, of schemes for the Pharmacist to supply without charge to those normally exempt from prescription charges. We are discussing extending our role in treating minor ailments with local Doctors, and would encourage more people to make us the first call. This trend is being recognised by the pharmaceutical industry and you may have noticed what a lot of commercials appear on TV for allsorts of medicines. Always ask the Medicines Counter Assistant or Pharmacist for advice rather than try to remember what was on TV last night, and we will often recommend a basic, long established medicine rather than the latest and more expensive brand.
Our patient survey exercise was completed in the autumn of 2007 and we are very grateful to all those who took the time and trouble to participate. It is pleasing to hear that our services are appreciated and considered to be of a high standard. Of the various general comments received a clear one was about car parking, so we have asked the Council for a marked NHS service users parking bay in Brewery Lane but have no great expectations of success.
Our next exercise is for all patients on prescriptions for Warfain because it is such an important medicine with many benefits and many risks if things go wrong. We shall be asking all such patients to carry their “Yellow Booklet” or warfarin card and we will be checking-up on INR Clinic dates and target INR results.
TEL: 01661 822055 FAX: 01661 860705 EMAIL: info@hopleypharmacy.co.uk
