Care homes and intermediate care

Build on Scotland’s skills and enthusiasm to deliver quality improvement, Parr tells Scottish National Seminar

Improving pharmacy in care homes so that patients are not overmedicated and bringing IT systems “into the 21st century” so that remote areas can access pharmaceutical care are two priorities for pharmacy in Scotland.…

Care home sector ‘on the edge’, warns businessman

Huge funding shortfalls for care homes are risking “catastrophic failure” in the NHS, a businessman expected to run a chain of care homes in the UK has warned.…

Compliance aids reduce medicine administration errors in care homes

Researchers observe higher accuracy rates when multi-compartment containers are used instead of original packaging to administer tablets to care-home residents.…

US sees rise in numbers of people dying from Alzheimer’s disease

Deaths from Alzheimer’s disease have risen by more than 50% in a 15-year period and are expected to increase further, a report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning.…

Communication training cuts antipsychotic use in nursing homes

Training nursing home staff to understand the personhood of patients with dementia reduces off-label prescribing of antipsychotics, New England study results show.…

RPS director for Wales: ‘There’s a collaborative approach to everything in Wales’

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) Welsh Pharmacy Board launched its manifesto in November 2015. Mair Davies, director for RPS Wales, talks to Julia Robinson about progress made since the launch, and her objectives for 2017 and beyond.…

The people behind the biggest pharmacy stories of 2016

In our review of 2016, The Pharmaceutical Journal highlights the people behind the biggest pharmacy stories of the past 12 months. These are men and women who we considered to be the most strongly connected with the news stories that had the biggest impact on our readers.…

Drug errors occur in up to 27% of people living in nursing homes, study shows

Researchers say nursing homes need a more sophisticated error recording system after a meta-analysis showed that some sort of medication error had affected 16–27% of residents.…

Pharmacy integration fund will total £42m over next two years

NHS England has announced that the pharmacy integration fund (PhIF), originally proposed in December 2015 as part of the government’s plans for community pharmacy, will total £42m over the next two years. This is substantially lower than the initial figure put forward earlier in 2016, wh…

Pharmacists should prepare medicine records for patients using home care services

Community pharmacists should create a paper medicines administration record for adults who use home care services, according to proposals from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), England’s health technology body.…