Northern Ireland

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.…

Pharmacy profession welcomes dispensing error decriminalisation legislation

Pharmacy leaders have welcomed new legislation that will protect community pharmacists from prosecution over dispensing errors.…

New premises standards outlined for pharmacies in Northern Ireland

Retail pharmacists in Northern Ireland are set to be given greater autonomy over how to run their services under proposed new standards.…

Pharmacy needs to ‘up its game’, Ridge tells RPS annual conference delegates

Pharmacy must “up its game in terms of quality”, Keith Ridge, the chief pharmaceutical officer (CPO) for England, told delegates at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s (RPS) 2017 annual conference.…

What the changes to the apprenticeship levy mean for pharmacy

Changes to the apprenticeship levy in England came into force in April 2017, meaning that regardless of the size of your pharmacy business, the apprenticeship programme should be seen as an opportunity to strengthen your workforce. Vanessa Kingsbury and Nick Marler explain what these changes mean an…