Community pharmacy services

Prescribing dilemmas: angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors for heart failure in an older patient

The fourth article of our new prescribing dilemmas series, exploring real-world dilemmas that pharmacist prescribers encounter in clinical practice.…

NHS data show significant variation in GP referrals to Pharmacy First across England

Exclusive: GPs in one integrated care board area made more than 11,000 Pharmacy First referrals between 31 January and 30 September 2024, while in another the figure was lower than 650.…

Tackling pharmacy funding crisis crucial to NHS transformation priorities, CPE tells government

Responding to the consultation shaping the government's ten-year plan for the NHS, Community Pharmacy England called for investment to assure the sector’s “long-term stability”.…

How a GP referral scheme improved hypertension detection in community pharmacy

Primary care pharmacist Gurvinder Najran shares the outcomes from an initiative in Dudley, West Midlands, aimed at improving hypertension detection by referring patients from general practice to community pharmacy.…

Community pharmacies have administered more than 8,000 RSV vaccines in east of England

Exclusive: NHS England has said that 8,187 respiratory syncytial virus vaccinations have been delivered between October and November 2024 across 37 community pharmacies in Essex and Suffolk.…

GPs back proposal to scrap community pharmacy blood pressure checks

The motion aimed to address community pharmacies’ unfair expectation to seek funding from schemes such as blood pressure checks “due to underfunding of their core national contract”.…

Patient communication will be essential for successful collective action

In this month’s health policy column, Andy Cowper outlines how pharmacies participating in the National Pharmacy Association’s advisory collective action can make their point to the government while keeping patients on side.…

Community pharmacies administered more than half of all COVID-19 vaccines to people from ethnic minorities, data show

According to the Company Chemists’ Association, data from the spring 2024 COVID-19 vaccination programme show that more vaccinations should be commissioned from pharmacies to increase vaccine uptake, particularly in hard-to-reach communities.…

Adrenal insufficiency: pathophysiology, diagnosis and management

Patients with adrenal insufficiency are at risk of life-threatening adrenal crises. It is vital that pharmacists know how to treat this rare condition appropriately.…