Integrated care boards leave an uncertain future for the prescribing pathfinder programme An investigation by The Pharmaceutical Journal has revealed geographic variation in the ongoing provision of the prescribing pathfinder programme, highlighting the need for a national service to be commissioned.…
Health news round-up: paternal health, clozapine guideline and news from the European Congress on Obesity Our weekly summary of the important developments in pharmacy and health news you may have missed.…
Preparing for pharmacist independent prescribing at scale A summary of the findings from a scoping exercise analysing the state of readiness within the UK healthcare system for pharmacist independent prescribing, considering what practical action can be taken to help its success.…
Are electronic prescribing systems increasing the risk of ‘look-alike sound-alike’ medication errors? Electronic prescribing and medication systems have been heralded for their potential to reduce medication errors, but they also make it easy to select the wrong drug. Has their implementation made it more likely for ‘look-alike sound-alike’ errors to occur?…
Why clinical mentorship should be embedded into community pharmacist prescribing Independent prescribing in community pharmacy cannot be safely or sustainably scaled without structured clinical support and supervision embedded into service design.…
Newly qualified independent community pharmacists to be prioritised for prescribing support An education and training pathway will provide 1,200 newly qualified independent community pharmacists with funded supervision.…
Pharmacists as antimicrobial stewards: ‘the bug stops here’ Antimicrobial resistance is a modern day crisis that we must all take responsibility for, with a balanced, careful approach to the use of antibiotic medicines.…
Is pharmacy education preparing pharmacists for the cognitive demands of modern practice? As pharmacy roles become more demanding, Christa Awad questions whether students are being prepared to carry out their roles safely.…
SMRs cut prescribing of potentially inappropriate medicines by up to 40% Researchers studying data from 635,698 patients discovered that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were the most commonly stopped prescription following a structured medication review.…
Think tank urges government to plan for prescribing supervision in community pharmacy A report by the Nuffield Trust has raised concerns around training for the new cohort of prescribing pharmacists joining the register from September 2026.…
