Northern Ireland

Why England’s Pharmacy First sore throat service needs point-of-care testing

Over the past few years, there has been a sore throat test-and-treat service implemented in Wales and, more recently, in Northern Ireland, based on their pilots. In England, we still have a sore throat service that does not include a point-of-care test (POCT) component. Results from pilots in Nor…

National Pharmacy Association to ballot members on work-to-rule action

The ballot will be open for six weeks, with the potential for action to be taken before Christmas.…

Nearly 900 students dropped out of MPharm after first year in 2021/2022

Exclusive: General Pharmaceutical Council data suggest that 889 out of 4,505 students did not continue the MPharm degree after the first year.…

Northern Ireland doubles number of pharmacy undergraduates since 2020

The Pharmacy Futures Campaign NI was launched in 2020 to build capacity across the pharmacy workforce.…

Department of Health to begin ‘emergency review’ of community pharmacy services in Northern Ireland

The review will aim to define the services that can be “reliably delivered this winter”, the Department of Health said.…

Underfunding has hit my community pharmacy hard, but we’re determined to provide new high-value services

Community pharmacist Eoghan O’Brien explains the impact of underfunding on the sector in Northern Ireland, and what he’s doing to continue providing a valued service to patients.…

Community pharmacists vote in favour of industrial action over funding pressures

Community pharmacists in Northern Ireland have voted in favour of industrial action, claiming that the profession is facing “insurmountable funding pressures”.…

Health secretary’s aide hears plea for government clarity on community pharmacy’s future

The government needs to be clear on where community pharmacy will stand in five years’ time, representatives of community pharmacy have told Alex Chalk, parliamentary private secretary to health minister Matt Hancock.…

Charity steps in to fund PrEP access in England and NI

A leading HIV and sexual health charity has announced that it will launch a pre-exposure prophylaxis access fund in autumn 2018 to support people in England and Northern Ireland who cannot access or afford the drug.…

Draft law to lift threat of prosecution for pharmacists

Straightforward change to anachronistic law that criminalised honest errors has taken a decade.…