Community pharmacy services

Moves to stop pharmacy repeat prescription schemes prompts new guidance

Community pharmacy leaders have produced guidance about the management of repeat medicine requests following moves by GPs to prevent community pharmacies from reordering prescriptions in advance on behalf of patients.…

Community pharmacy forward view sets out plans to support ‘high performing’ NHS

A vision in which pharmacy is the first port of call for non-emergency episodic care and facilitates personalised care for people with long-term conditions has been laid out by the profession.…

Pharmacy teams regularly choose not to supply OTC drugs

Community pharmacy teams regularly choose not to fulfil customers’ requests for over-the-counter (OTC) medicines, offering health advice or signposting them to other services instead, a study by Pharmacy Voice has revealed.…

Community pharmacy helps diagnose people with hepatitis C infection, study shows

Community pharmacists have the potential to identify people with undiagnosed hepatitis C infection, according to research published in Clinical Pharmacist.…

Canadian data suggest community pharmacies improve flu vaccine uptake

Influenza vaccination rates are modestly higher in provinces where the vaccinations can be provided by pharmacists, research conducted in Canada shows.…

Integrating community pharmacy testing for hepatitis C with specialist care

Many patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection lie undiagnosed and a significant proportion of patients that have been identified are disengaged from specialist services. The Isle of Wight (IOW) typifies this issue, with an estimated 200 undiagnosed patients with HCV infection and a small numb…

Quarter of pharmacists never speak to parents about childhood headache

More than a quarter of pharmacists (27.6%) say that they have never spoken to a parent or carer about childhood headache, despite the condition occurring in around 60% of children and adolescents.…

Pharmacy smoking cessation advisers feel underpaid and ill-prepared

Smoking cessation advisers report a lack of interpersonal skills to deal with smokers and say they are not paid enough by the NHS to provide the service.…

Pharmacy cuts to cause disruption for up to 600,000 patients

Up to 600,000 patients will face significant disruption as a result of the government’s proposed funding cuts to the pharmacy budget in England, according to analysis by information and technology services company IMS Health.…

Pharmacy Strep A testing could reduce GP appointments for sore throats

A scheme involving point-of-care testing for group A streptococci in community pharmacy was able to limit antibiotic prescriptions to under 10% of patients, and could potentially reduce GP consultations for sore throat.…