Care of older people

GP-based audit intervention helps cut high-risk prescribing

Results from a pharmacist-delivered audit pilot show that it reduced levels of high-risk prescribing in general practice, study results have shown.…

Pharmacists in care homes could save NHS £135m, says RPS’s Robbie Turner

Robbie Turner, director of pharmacy and member experience at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, wrote to all 44 sustainability and transformation partnership leads to reiterate how the pharmacy sector should be embedded in STP implementation plans and working groups.…

Medication reviews cut prescribing in older people with diabetes

A review of older people with diabetes who take sulfonylureas led to 58% being deprescribed the medication, according to results of research carried out by the West Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group.…

Putting insomnia to bed

An estimated 30–50% of the population will experience insomnia symptoms at some point in their lives and, in the UK, insomnia rates steadily rise with age. With a 2% increase in sales of over-the-counter sleep aids during 2017, pharmacists are seeing more patients with insomnia symptoms. Here …

Pharmacists begin deprescribing pilot for frail older people with diabetes

Exclusive: New type 2 diabetes guidance, which is the first in the UK to include specific recommendations for treating frail older people, is being piloted by pharmacists working in GP surgeries in south west England.…

Increase in potentially inappropriate medicines use seen in all older adults, study results suggest

After assessing patterns of medicines use in patients with and without dementia, researchers found that the risk of potentially inappropriate medicines use significantly increased in all groups…

Understanding cognitive barriers to safer prescribing for frail patients

Deciding to stop medicines that have been prescribed in line with clinical guidelines could be seen as counter-cultural. It goes against the grain for clinicians, and often patients, too. This Safer Prescribing for Frailty project used an understanding of the cognitive barriers to stopping medi…

Regular health checks needed for older people with learning disabilities to reduce late diagnosis, NICE says

Older people with learning disabilities should have annual health assessments to help monitor their health more effectively, according to new guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.…

How Kayt Blythin established a pharmacist-led medicines optimisation service in East Sussex care homes

Kayt Blythin is a principal clinical pharmacist for medicines optimisation for care homes at Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust.…

Medical cannabis safe and effective in older people, study finds

Research has shown medical cannabis to be safe and effective for treating pain in older people…