GP

GPs to prescribe weight loss injections under £40m pilot scheme

The GP-prescribing pilot is aimed to explore how drugs can be made available to more people by expanding specialist weight management services outside hospital settings.…

‘Show me your meds, please’: the impact of home-based medicines assessments

A South Somerset pilot project has demonstrated why asking to see a patient’s medicines during a home visit can have a considerable impact on their health, while saving NHS costs and resources.…

Potential of pharmacists in general practice to improve care is being squandered

The value of pharmacy expertise is only slowly being recognised by general practice teams, and incoming primary care network pharmacists should be aware they will face major challenges.…

Appropriate management of urinary tract infections in older patients

As one of the most common infections at community level, the implications of a urinary tract infection (UTI) are well known to pharmacists across both primary and secondary care. Older people are particularly at risk of a UTI, with the presence of asymptomatic bacteriuria historically complicating d…

Pharmacists have improved antibiotic prescribing, finds study in 6,000 UK general practices

Employing pharmacists in general practices has led to "good prescribing behaviour" but patient satisfaction has decreased in practices that hired more healthcare professionals to support GPs.…

Health boards given £80m to offer more pharmacy support in general practice

In addition to providing greater pharmacy support, the Scottish government has announced that the funding will be used to provide increased nursing support and access to physiotherapy.…

Pharmacy staff recruitment into general practice should be paused, say negotiators

Representatives for the pharmacy sector in Scotland are calling for “a temporary stop to the recruitment of pharmacy workforce to GP primary care support roles”.…

Pharmacy contractors asked to audit patient consultations for ‘improper referrals’ from GPs and NHS 111

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee’s second pharmacy advice audit will take place in the week of 25 January 2021.…

How our multidisciplinary approach helped us reduce our practice’s high-dose prescribing by almost half

Senior GP pharmacist Rory Donnelly explains how his practice helped reduce high-dose opioid prescribing by an average of 40%.…

Welsh pharmacies save over 35,000 GP appointments each week, audit finds

Around half of patients who received advice in Welsh pharmacies would otherwise have gone to their GP first, an audit by Community Pharmacy Wales has found.…