Policy and politics

Half of pharmacists report increase in patients unable to afford prescription medicines, reveals survey

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society survey of 269 pharmacists in England also revealed an increasing number of people are not collecting their prescriptions.…

UK government rejects proposals for a national formulary for HRT

Other rejected recommendations include the introduction of a menopause leave policy as well as making menopause a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010.…

Highlights of 2022: a letter from the three Royal Pharmaceutical Society national pharmacy board chairs

A central focus for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) in England in 2022 was the development of our 'Vision for pharmacy professional practice', in partnership with The King’s Fund. This report, published on 14 December 2022, sets out how pharmacy teams can support better patient care and hel…

New pharmacy minister appointed 

Neil O'Brien, already a health minister, will become the fourth MP to hold the Westminster pharmacy brief in 2022.…

Government shelves plan for ‘Pharmacy First’ service in England

The delayed agreement for the remaining two years of the 'Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework' confirms an excess margin write-off, meaning pharmacies will keep £100m they would otherwise have had to repay.…

Thérèse Coffey appointed as new health and social care secretary

The MP for Suffolk Coastal replaces Steve Barclay, who held the post for just two months.…

NHS Scotland announces plan to switch patients to greener inhalers

A strategy document, published by NHS Scotland, says that improvements in the way asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are managed could help reduce metered dose inhaler use.…

Royal college status to be pursued at ‘appropriate’ time, says RPS Assembly

The subject of royal college status was revisited in July's RPS Assembly meeting in response to a motion raised at the Society AGM in May 2022 that called for the RPS to "reaffirm this commitment" to seek Royal College status.…

MPs recommend government draft pharmacy workforce plan within 12 months

The House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee said the workforce plan "must ensure that all pharmacists have adequate access to supervision, training and protected learning time".…

Developing the clinical pharmacy technician role for mental health triaging

NHS England & NHS Improvement are building on the 'NHS long-term plan', focusing on the mental health provision within mental health services. Against this context, we wanted to improve the therapeutic inpatient mental health care within our service by developing a clinical pharmacy technic…