Coroner writes to ICB following death of patient who took too many of their prescribed drugs The ‘Prevention of future deaths’ report, published on 16 April 2025, was issued following the death of patient who was waiting for mental health support.…
Antibiotic could help tackle drug-resistant gonorrhoea, study results suggest Researchers found that gepotidacin was as effective as the current recommended first-line therapy for gonorrhoea.…
Community pharmacy RSV expansion programme to be expanded four-fold The Department of Health and Social Care said up to 200 community pharmacy sites could be commissioned to provide the respiratory syncytial virus vaccination in 2025/2026.…
NHS England sets target to save £1bn on medicines by 2029 Board papers published in March 2025 said that using “commercial capabilities” had realised close to £500m in medicines savings in 2023/2024.…
Scottish government offers hospital pharmacists 8% pay increase over two years The proposed pay offer to NHS Agenda for Change staff amounts to an £701m investment and is promised to remain above the consumer price index inflation rate in 2025/2026 and 2026/2027.…
NHS England to assess feasibility of a national inhaler recycling scheme Health minister Karin Smyth said NHS England was “currently supporting the implementation of an inhaler recycling pilot to assess a national scheme’s feasibility and potential benefits”.…
NHS increases funding for inclisiran although uptake remains ‘slower than expected’ In a letter sent to colleagues, NHS England said it had increased the reimbursement fee for inclisiran from £50 to £60.…
English pharmacy sore throat service twice as likely to supply antibiotics than Welsh equivalent Researchers compared the antibiotic supply rates of the two schemes and found that 72.7% of patients in England were prescribed with antibiotics following a pharmacy consultation, compared with 29.9% in Wales.…
Genetic testing could prevent three-quarters of avoidable side effects of some medicines, study suggests Researchers found that patients experiencing adverse drug reactions to treatments for psychiatric disorders and cardiovascular problems could benefit the most from personalised prescribing with pharmacogenomics.…
Pharmacy and GP contracts should ‘encourage collaboration’, says think tank report A report published by The King’s Fund has urged that national contracts for general practice and community pharmacy should be “coherent and complementary” in order to move care into the community.…