News | Elderly care

News

Chief pharmaceutical officers say it is ‘entirely reasonable’ for pharmacists to take position on assisted dying bill

A joint statement warned that the outcome of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill must not undermine provision of good end-of-life care and work by palliative care clinicians.…

Published: 21 November 2024

Letter

Management of overprescribing of oral nutritional supplements in a community hospital

Malnutrition costs the UK an astounding £23.5bn annually1, an increase from £19.5bn reported by the British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN) in 2015, with half of this amount spent on its treatment in older people aged over 65 years2. Dehydration and malnutritio…

Published: 23 September 2024

News

Statins offer cost-effective benefit for older people, study results suggest

The researchers found that lifetime use of a standard statin therapy increased quality-adjusted life years by 0.24–0.70 per person.…

Published: 12 September 2024

Opinion

Call for papers: palliative and end-of-life care

The Pharmaceutical Journal would like to invite UK pharmacy professionals to let us know what they are doing in their local area to improve access to palliative and end-of-life care.…

Published: 9 September 2024

News

NICE approves osteoporosis treatment that could benefit 14,000 people at high risk of fracture

Abaloparatide will provide an alternative for women after menopause who have not responded to, or cannot tolerate, usual treatment options.…

Published: 7 August 2024

News

NSAID prescribing in high-risk groups is a major source of avoidable harm, study finds

The study estimated that the practice could have caused more than 6,000 lost years of good health across England over a ten-year period.…

Published: 26 July 2024

News

Community falls pharmacists ‘effective and cost-efficient’ in optimising medicines for older patients, study suggests

Data from 92 people referred to a community falls pharmacist show an 8% mean reduction in the number of medicines prescribed per patient and anticholinergic burden score per patient reduced by 33%.…

Published: 25 July 2024

News

Pharmacists in primary care should be ‘enabled to prioritise’ structured medication reviews, says RPS

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society policy statement says primary care networks must recognise that they are accountable for delivering structured medication reviews.…

Published: 23 July 2024

Letter

The narrow age range chosen for the RSV vaccination programme is disappointing

I am a retired pharmacist and friends are asking me why there is such a narrow age range for older adults chosen for the NHS vaccination programme against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which is due to begin in September 2024. Fortunately, I fall within the chosen age cohort but many of…

Published: 4 July 2024

News

Antipsychotic drugs in dementia treatment associated with range of adverse reactions

Experts say the findings suggest that the risks of prescribing antipsychotics in people with dementia “may be more severe than previously understood”.…

Published: 24 April 2024