Healthcare provision

Expansion of pharmacist independent prescribing service to start in November 2021

Exclusive: Digital Health and Care Wales has completed an assurance that will allow all health boards to commission additional sites to provide the 'Choose Pharmacy' independent prescribing service from 1 November 2021.…

Scottish government funds 130 post-registration training places from October 2021

The training will include an independent prescriber course for early-years pharmacists.…

Additional £28m for primary care in Scotland may be used to accelerate recruitment of GP pharmacists

Exclusive: Critics argue that pharmacy should have been specifically mentioned in the funding announcement, owing to the impact additional winter pressures could have on pharmacy services.…

We must work together to enable safer prescribing in children

I write a letter in response to The Pharmaceutical Journal article 'GPs must take on more responsibility for paediatric prescribing from hospitals' by Alison Tennant, published on 13 September 2021. The opinion piece sets out to raise questions as to why more paediatric prescribing does not occur in…

Full electronic prescribing within five years, Welsh government pledges

The Welsh government aims to replace paper prescriptions and 'wet' signatures in primary care with electronic prescriptions and signatures in the next three to five years.…

Rising to the challenge: communicating medicines-related information across a large and diverse health board

The rate of prescribing errors in primary care is at least 11%, and 1 in 10 patients may experience a medication error while in hospital; it is crucial that medicines governance processes are in place to support the safe use of medicines. Communication is an essential element of medicines governance…

The impact of a medicines administration pharmacist on patient safety and medicines management: a service evaluation

This study considers the benefits of the introduction of a medicines administration pharmacist on an inpatient ward at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.…

GPs must take on more responsibility for paediatric prescribing from hospitals

The importance of safe paediatric prescribing must not be overlooked as healthcare systems evolve.…

NHS patients will be first in Europe to receive mutation-targeting lung cancer treatment

The tumour-agnostic drug sotorasib has been approved for the treatment of patients in England with non-small cell lung cancer.…

Patients must be warned not to swallow betamethasone soluble tablets

The views expressed in this letter are those of the author’s. If you would like to submit a letter to The Pharmaceutical Journal, please click here. The use of betamethasone 500 microgram soluble tablets as a mouthwash is referenced in national guidance sources as a treatment for ora…