Scotland

Pharmacists to improve provision of palliative care medicines under proposed five-year strategy

The Scottish government has set out plans to provide better access to high-quality palliative care by 2030, as well as the provision of clear medicines information for patients and their families.…

Scottish government to replace paper prescriptions by 2026

The ‘Digital prescribing and dispensing programme’ is aimed to introduce an advanced electronic signature that will replace the wet signature on prescriptions.…

Community pharmacies to receive increase in funding worth £13.2m for 2024/2025

Community Pharmacy Scotland has accepted a £13.2m uplift in the country's community pharmacy remuneration global sum, bringing the total to £232.7m for 2024/2025.…

Pharmacy teams identify patients with ‘red-flag’ cancer symptoms in early diagnosis project

Exclusive: Of those identified, 17 people presenting with red-flag symptoms received a formal consultation with a pharmacist during the six-month project.…

Hospital pharmacists vote to accept 5.5% pay offer from UK government

Unite the Union said that two-thirds of Unite members voted in favour of the pay increase for NHS workers in England.…

Director for RPS Scotland wins FIP Congress oral presentation prize

Laura Wilson said she hopes her presentation helped to encourage pharmacists “from across the world to consider how hospital clinical pharmacy services can be transformed to enhance patient care”.…

UK’s first safe drug consumption room expected to open in October 2024

The safe drug consumption facility will allow people to use illegal drugs in a sterile environment at Hunter Street Health and Social Care Centre in Glasgow, Scotland.…

Deaths related to drug misuse in Scotland rose by almost 12% in 2023

The National Records of Scotland data show that opioids were implicated in 80% of the misuse-related deaths in 2023.…

More than 2,000 patients tested in UK’s first routine genotyping project for clopidogrel prescribing

Exclusive: The genotyping project at NHS Tayside identified 2,300 patients, 29% of whom emerged as ‘poor’ or ‘intermediate’ CYP2C19-clopidogrel metabolisers.…

Pharmacy initiative results in 300% increase in inhalers being returned for sustainable disposal

Five pharmacies in and around Edinburgh spent ten weeks adding stickers to dispensing bags to encourage patients to return inhalers to the pharmacy.…