News | Elderly care

Opinion

Controlled drug stock licensing is working against high-quality palliative care for care home patients

All care homes should be permitted to hold a stock of palliative care medicines, ensuring swift availability to in-need patients at the end of their lives.…

Published: 8 November 2023

Opinion

Person-centred structured medication reviews: the care home perspective

Primary care pharmacist Rachel Lewis shares her research into achieving person-centred care when reviewing care home residents' medication.…

Published: 15 May 2023

News

Pharmacist prescribers can reduce sedative use in care homes, study demonstrates

Researchers found that pharmacist independent prescribers were able to improve outcomes for care home residents through "effective deprescribing" of anticholinergic and sedative drugs.…

Published: 15 February 2023

Opinion

How we improved dysphagia care and saved more than £40,000 per year

Having recognised that care home residents at risk of dysphagia were facing long waiting times, Thomas Sauter’s team in Bridgend, Wales, devised a successful pilot that increased capacity and saved more than £40,000 in attributable hospital costs.…

Published: 9 February 2023

News

‘Devastating effects’ caused by switching between branded and generic Parkinson’s disease medication

Charity Parkinson's UK said patients had experienced pain and other symptoms after being switched between branded and generic medications.…

Published: 1 February 2023

News

‘No evidence’ for some warnings of severe outcomes with antibiotics, say researchers

Researchers have called for the evidence base for the inclusion of drug interactions in national formularies to be "strengthened".…

Published: 23 January 2023

Letter

Appropriate management of urinary tract infections in older patients

As one of the most common infections at community level, the implications of a urinary tract infection (UTI) are well known to pharmacists across both primary and secondary care. Older people are particularly at risk of a UTI, with the presence of asymptomatic bacteriuria historically complicating d…

Published: 30 December 2022

Feature

How COVID-19 increased antipsychotic prescribing in care homes

As the care home sector struggled to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a shift to using more antipsychotic drugs. While concerning, this has since provided the push needed to consider new solutions to reduce prescribing of these potentially harmful drugs.…

Published: 3 November 2022

News

‘Worrying’ rise in number of patients with a high anticholinergic burden

Exclusive: Experts say the rise could be owing to the lack of contact between prescribers and patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.…

Published: 19 October 2022

Feature

Anticholinergic drugs and dementia: a causal link?

The implications of changes to the regulation of oxybutynin in the UK and the case for deprescribing anticholinergics, such as this, to prevent cognitive adverse effects.…

Published: 5 October 2022