Primary care

Wherever there is a medicine, there should be a pharmacist

As the Royal Pharmaceutical Society enters its latest elections, pharmacists are being seen in new and emerging roles. These are being seen by some as more exciting and rewarding than some current practice. However, I am concerned at the continuing theme that some current roles, particularly that of…

Working to embed and develop our profession

I have worked in hospital pharmacy, managed community pharmacies and led medicines optimisation services for clinical commissioning groups. I currently work for NHS England in Greater Manchester, managing pharmacy contracts, ensuring delivery of quality patient services and developing new services. …

Collaboration is key to our future

The recently published ‘Next steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View’ (5YFV) by NHS England provides a helpful overview of the 5YFW journey so far, shows examples of what’s worked, and clearly maps out the future direction of the NHS. So rather than dipping into the executive summa…

Discuss clinical needs with patients before ditching sun creams

Having read the announcement from the NHS and the term “waste which is in the system” ( The Pharmaceutical Journal online, March 2017), I was surprised to read that sun creams fall within this category. As a manufacturer of a prescribed sun cream, of which there are onl…

Chemoprevention in British women is inadequate

We write to outline our concerns that breast cancer prevention strategies are not being implemented to their fullest potential in the UK. Breast cancer is the most common female cancer and the second leading cause of death in women in the UK. According to Cancer Research UK, there were more th…

Sunscreen should not be seen as a beauty product

Melanoma UK is deeply concerned about NHS England’s plans to remove a number of medicines from being prescribable which they deem ‘low priority’ ( The Pharmaceutical Journal online, 29 March 2017). The suggestion that sunscreen has “little clinical value” is…

NICE proposes routine HIV testing in high prevalence areas

Adults and young people who live in local authority areas where the prevalence of HIV is ranked as “extremely high” may routinely be offered a test for the virus when they are admitted to hospital or attend an emergency department, according to new proposals from the National Institute f…

How to support cancer patients in community pharmacies

Every community pharmacy team will come into contact with cancer patients or their family members. This article aims to provide community pharmacists and healthcare professionals with the tools to be able to speak confidently to patients with cancer and summarises the useful resources available.…

How to identify symptoms of coeliac disease in community pharmacy and primary care

It is estimated that in the UK there are more than half a million people with clinically undiagnosed coeliac disease, caused by an adverse immune response to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Pharmacists and healthcare professionals can play a key role in identifying indivi…

UK regulator clamps down on unsafe online medicines sites

The Care Quality Commission is warning the public to be cautious when buying medicines online after inspections highlighted significant concerns about patient safety.…