PJ September 2020, Vol 305, No 7941

Prescribing ward round with pharmacist involvement cuts errors on paediatric ICU

A daily prescribing round in a paediatric intensive care unit led to a reduction in prescribing errors and overall time spent on medicines queries and prescribing.…

RPS appoints new director for Scotland

Clare Morrison has been appointed the new director for Scotland at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.…

Large parts of Scotland will not commission flu vaccinations from community pharmacies

Several health boards in Scotland will not use community pharmacies to deliver flu vaccinations this winter, despite being able to do so for the first time.…

Pharmacies should consider charging for services that are not part of their contract, negotiator says

Pharmacy contractors should consider charging for some services that they currently provide for free that are not part of their contract, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee has said.…

Restrictions on OTC prescribing have saved less than a third of the money that NHS England forecast

NHS England has saved an estimated £32m since restrictions on prescribing items that are available over the counter were introduced in March 2018, it has emerged.…

Government has ‘no plans’ to offer NHS staff mental health support to pharmacists, it says

There are no plans to change the NHS Practitioner Health service to include pharmacists, the Department of Health and Social Care has told The Pharmaceutical Journal.…

More than half of pharmacists worked extra unpaid hours during COVID-19 pandemic, survey by The Pharmaceutical Journal finds

More than half of pharmacists have said that they worked extra hours during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet nearly two thirds said that they were not paid for this additional time.…

Point-of-care testing for influenza could improve antimicrobial use, feasibility study concludes

Point-of-care testing for influenza is feasible in primary care and may improve antimicrobial use, a study in the British Journal of General Practice has concluded.…

Harry McQuillan: ‘Pharmacy First is the art of pharmacy’

Scottish community pharmacy is about to enter a new phase as the Pharmacy First service aims to position it as the first port of call for common clinical conditions.…