New medicine service

Be careful how you promote the NMS to patients

I am writing to urge community pharmacists to be mindful of how they promote the new medicine service (NMS). I was a community pharmacist for seven years but am now a full-time hospital pharmacist in an A&E department. I recently saw an older patient who was admitted to A&E after keeli…

Volume of prescriptions dispensed up 1.7% while number of pharmacies remains steady

The number of prescriptions dispensed in England by community pharmacies increased by 1.7% in 2015–2016, while the number of pharmacies stayed relatively steady, figures from NHS Digital show.…

Community pharmacy care delivered at no net cost to public purse in 2015

Twelve services provided by community pharmacy in England delivered £3bn in net value during 2015, concludes a report commissioned by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee.…

If elected to the RPS pharmacy board, what will be your top two priorities?

Candidates explain what their top two priorities will be if they are elected to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society pharmacy board.…

Workplace pressures in UK pharmacies must be addressed

Setting unreasonable financial targets for clinical services is undermining professional autonomy of pharmacists and not serving the patient.…

MURs and the NMS re-engineered

In my election statement I called for the new medicine service (NMS) and medicines use reviews (MURs) to become universal components of more clinically orientated community pharmacy service. Despite the adverse publicity and claims of their use to achieve targets for remuneration, my stance is not t…

Study finds pharmacist-led medication reviews may not improve health outcomes

Reviewing the medication of patients presenting at hospital promptly was not found to have an impact on the length of hospital admission, mortality or re-admissions, finds a systematic review.…

Advice, rules and regulations for setting up an internet pharmacy

There are 496 distance-selling pharmacy websites currently registered in the UK. What do pharmacists who want to set up their own online pharmacy need to know? …

Bruce Warner: getting the best value and outcomes from the use of medicines

Deputy chief pharmaceutical officer Bruce Warner discusses promoting the medicines optimisation agenda and shares his views on broader issues affecting pharmacists.…

Community pharmacists support new medicine service, research suggests

Community pharmacists generally support the new medicine service because they think it will benefit patients, according to new research.…