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Showing results for tags 'Pharmacist'.
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News Article
Midwives and paramedics to deliver flu and Covid vaccines, proposes DHSC
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An 'expanded workforce' will be delivering flu and a potential COVID-19 vaccine, under proposals unveiled by the Government today. The three-week consultation also focuses on a proposal of mass vaccinations against COVID-19 using a yet-to-be-licensed vaccine, if one becomes available this year. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is hoping new legislation could come into effect by October, ahead of the winter season. The consultation proposes to amend the Human Medicine Regulations 2012 to "expand the workforce legally allowed to administer vaccines under NHS and local authority occupational health schemes, so that additional healthcare professionals in the occupational health workforce will be able to administer vaccines". It said this would include 'midwives, nursing associates, operating department practitioners, paramedics, physiotherapists and pharmacists'. The consultation said: "This will help ensure we have the workforce needed to deliver a mass COVID-19 vaccination programme, in addition to delivery of an upscaled influenza programme, in the autumn." The consultation also said that "there is a possibility that both the flu vaccine and the COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered at the same time, and we need to make sure that in this scenario there is sufficient workforce to allow for this". Read full story Source: Pulse, 28 August 2020 -
News ArticleFollowing four deaths and more than 300 incidents with steroid replacement therapy involving patients with adrenal insufficiency in the past two years, patients at risk of adrenal crisis will be issued with a steroid emergency card. All adults with primary adrenal insufficiency (AI) will be issued an NHS steroid emergency card to support early recognition and treatment of adrenal crisis, a National Patient Safety Alert has said. The cards will be issued by prescribers — including community pharmacists — from 18 August 2020. AI is an endocrine disorder, such as Addison’s disease, which can lead to adrenal crisis and death if not identified and treated. Omission of steroids in patients with AI, particularly during physiological stress such as an additional illness or surgery, can also lead to an adrenal crisis. The alert has requested that “all organisations that initiate steroid prescriptions should review their processes/policies and their digital systems/software and prompts to ensure that prescribers issue a steroid emergency card to all eligible patients” by 13 May 2021. Read full story Source: The Pharmaceutical Journal, 17 August 2020
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Patients Know Best launches education programme for medical students
Clive Flashman posted a news article in News
Patients Know Best has launched an education programme which can be used by medical schools. Among the first to use the programme are undergraduate Pharmacy students at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). The Patients Know Best platform, which recently became the first personal health record to be fully integrated into the NHS App, has been incorporated into the curriculum to facilitate simulated interactions between patients and pharmacists. This has involved training the students to use Patients Know Best to enable their use of the platform to interact and collaborate with each other. Read the full article here. -
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Medicines safety: NHS online learning index
Claire Cox posted an article in Medication including labelling
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Coronavirus: 70% of BAME pharmacists have had no risk assessment
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
More than two-thirds of black, Asian and minority ethnic pharmacists have not had workplace risk assessments for coronavirus, a survey suggests. Of the 380 hospital and community-based pharmacists surveyed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the UK Black Pharmacists Association, 236 were from a BAME background. Of those, 166 (70%) said they had not been approached by their employer to have a risk assessment. The RPS called the results "shocking". It has called on employers to take urgent action to ensure ethnic minority pharmacists are risk assessed. Read full story Source: BBC News, 26 June 2020 -
News Article
Government delay could see people miss out on vaccines
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Pharmacies are warning people are at risk of not getting the flu jab unless an urgent decision is made over the winter vaccination programme. The Company Chemists’ Association, which represents large pharmacy groups, told HSJ the government and NHS England need to “urgently” clarify how many people it wants vaccinated for flu this year, as well as making changes to regulations. An expanded and successful winter vaccine programme is seen as key to avoiding potentially catastrophic demand for hospital beds, with flu demand coinciding with covid-19 surges. Malcolm Harrison, chief executive, said: “We need decisions made now. We have an ongoing dialogue with NHS England but they seem to be waiting on secretary of state’s decision on which groups need vaccinating. That is something [the health secretary, Matt Hancock] needs to make a decision about very, very soon.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 10 July 2020 -
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The Salford Medication Safety Dashboard (SMASH)
Claire Cox posted an article in Medication including labelling
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Transfers of Care Around Medicines (TCAM)
Claire Cox posted an article in Medication including labelling
This is what the Transfers of Care Around Medicine (TCAM) project aims to address: When patients discharged from hospital are identified as needing extra support, they are referred through a safe and secure digital platform for advice from their local community pharmacist. Original work in the North East showed that patients who see their community pharmacist after they’ve been in hospital are less likely to be readmitted and, if they are, will experience a shorter stay. Many AHSNs, including Wessex and the West of England, have worked with trusts and Local Pharmaceutical Committees to help set up a secure electronic interface between the hospital IT systems and PharmOutcomes, the community pharmacy system used in their area. This has further enhanced TCAM by providing patient data quickly and seamlessly to their community pharmacist. Wessex AHSN developed an awareness campaign to encourage people to seek help with their medicines, featuring a character called Mo in a series of animated films and accompanying poster resources for pharmacies. The films have been viewed almost 64,000 times. Through the national implementation of TCAM in 2018-2020, each AHSN will support their local trusts to establish a TCAM pathway. This will enable all suitable patients to be referred to their community pharmacy or GP pharmacist where appropriate. -
Content ArticleThe FIP hub includes: Modes of transmission and incubation period.. Pharmacy operations and facilities: ensuring safety and continuity of service. Preventive measures, including the use of masks. Pharmacy interventions and patient counselling. Treatment guidelines and medicines that may need to be stocked. Progress in medicines and vaccines development. Laboratory testing for COVID-19 in suspected human cases. Cleaning and disinfection products and procedures. Travel advice. This guidance is based on the available evidence and the recommendations of reputable organisations such as the World Health Organization, the United States and the European Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and others, at the time of publishing. Knowledge on COVID-19 is rapidly changing and recommendations may change accordingly. FIP is also providing educational webinars and new communication lines related to COVID-19.
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News ArticlePharmacy leaders in the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities have expressed concern that assessments of BAME staff’s susceptibility to COVID-19 are not widespread enough in community pharmacy. NHS England wrote to community pharmacies on 29 April 2020 advising employers to “risk assess staff at potentially greater risk” of COVID-19 after “emerging UK and international data” suggested people from BAME backgrounds are “being disproportionately affected”. The Faculty of Occupational Medicine later published a risk reduction framework — backed by NHS England — to assist with the risk assessments on 14 May 2020. This was updated on 28 May 2020 to include guidance from the Health and Safety Executive to “help organisations identify who is at risk of harm”. But speaking to The Pharmaceutical Journal, Elsy Gomez Campos, president of the UK Black Pharmacists’ Association (UKBPA), said she had been told by a small number of community pharmacists that “nothing has been done” in terms of risk assessing BAME staff. “I know of a few people who have been assessed and that is mainly in hospital,” she said. “In terms of community pharmacists — who I’ve had contact with so far — they haven’t even been asked to have the risk assessment done.” However, she stressed that not many from the community pharmacy sector have come forward, but “the people who have come forward have said no, it has not been done”. “People are quite scared to ask as well because it can have repercussions on their employment or their relationships [at work],” she added. Read full story Source: The Pharmaceutical Journal, 29 May 2020
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News Article
One in three pharmacists unable to access PPE, finds RPS survey
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A third of pharmacists cannot obtain continuous supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), according to a survey conducted by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS). The survey found that 34% of respondents said they were not able to source continued supplies of PPE as they work in the face of COVID-19. The poll of 445 pharmacists also revealed that 94% were unable to maintain social distancing of two metres from other staff in their pharmacy, mainly because the pharmacies — and the dispensaries in particular — were too small. A further 40% of respondents said they were unable to maintain social distancing of two metres from patients. The results of the survey, which ran between 14 and 20 April 2020, have come after Public Health England (PHE) updated its PPE guidance on 10 April 2020, which recommends that pharmacy staff only wear fluid-resistant (type IIR) surgical masks (FRSMs) when in “contact with possible or confirmed cases of COVID-19” and not around other pharmacy staff. Read full story Source: The Pharmaceutical Journal, 22 April 2020 -
Content ArticleThis web page offers numerous resource pages which include: drug monitoring medicines management during this crisis summary of drugs for COVID-19.
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The problem with medication reconciliation
Claire Cox posted an article in Medication including labelling
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News Article
New pharmacy referral service to help patients avoid hospital readmission
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
From July, hospitals will be able to refer patients who would benefit from extra guidance around new prescribed medicines to their community pharmacy. Patients will be digitally referred to their pharmacy after discharge from hospital. The NHS Discharge Medicines Service will help patients get the maximum benefits from new medicines they’ve been prescribed by giving them the opportunity to ask questions to pharmacists and ensuring any concerns are identified as early as possible. This is part of the Health Secretary’s ‘Pharmacy First’ approach to ease wider pressures on A&Es and general practice. Read full story Source: Department of Health and Social Care, 23 February 2020 -
Content ArticleThis study, published by Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control, shows that in hospital outpatient clinics, prophylaxis accounted for a quarter of the antimicrobial prescriptions and had in general a good guideline-adherence rate, with the exception of unnecessarily prescribed post-surgical/intervention prophylaxis, whereas a substantial part of the therapeutic prescriptions were inappropriate. Amoxicillin-clavulanic acid was the most inappropriately prescribed antimicrobial agent, regarding non-adherence to the guideline and also regarding the lack of considering renal function for dosage adjustment. Altogether, it is believed that antimicrobials prescribed at the hospital outpatient clinics warrant ASP attention. The variation of the guideline adherence rate between the investigated hospitals, as well as the differences with prior studies addressing antibiotic use in ambulatory settings in general, emphasise that (hospital) outpatient antimicrobial use should be audited locally.
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News Article
Pharmacists are trapped in a system that threatens patient safety
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The current pharmacy system in the US needs to to change now, according to Thomas Menighan, APhA Executive Vice President and CEO in a recent blog. "The current system sets pharmacists up to fail, and in turn, pharmacists are burning out at high rates", says Thomas. "This is an issue that not only puts patients at risk but deprives pharmacists of the opportunity to provide the kind of patient care we all got into pharmacy to provide". "During my time as a community pharmacist, I cherished the relationships I established with patients and understood the great responsibility that came with the trust they placed in me. Pharmacists take an oath to, among other things, “assure optimal outcomes” for patients. I can attest to the emphasis our profession places on patient safety. When it comes to medication-related errors, even one is too many." Thomas suggests the solution comes from taking a hard look at how pharmacies are reimbursed and who profits from inadequate patient care. Meanwhile, state and local pilot projects that compensate pharmacists for greater involvement in team-based care have proven that when pharmacists are allowed to provide a full range of services, costs go down and patient outcomes improve. "It’s perverse that we pharmacists are begging for the opportunity to practice the kind of pharmacy we were extensively educated and trained to practice. And who benefits from this warped system? Here’s a hint: it’s not pharmacies or patients." "We must regulate the pharmacy benefit managers who make obscene sums of money without doing a single thing to serve patients. They say they keep prices and premiums down but simultaneously fight attempts to force them to be transparent about how they supposedly achieve this. If it’s not greedy, let’s see how it works. If it really helps patients, tell us how. But they won’t. It’s indefensible." Read full story Source: APhA, 11 February 2020 -
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VTE prevention: How can pharmacists contribute? (August 2011)
Claire Cox posted an article in Community pharmacies
The NICE 2010 guidance (CG92) requires that all adult hospital inpatients undergo a VTE risk assessment (RA) using a standardised national VTE RA template – upon admission, again 48 hours later, and whenever the patient’s clinical condition changes. Based on the national template, clinicians at Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust (CHUFT) pioneered an electronic VTE RA tool that enables the assessment to be completed in 30 seconds. This tool has the added benefits of calculating the risk of VTE and recommending appropriate prophylaxis using a pharmacological and/or mechanical agent. This decision support tool is web-based and is now available to any organisation across the globe. The tool and the VTE prevention programme at Colchester Hospital won the 2010 NHS Innovation Award for Patient Safety. -
Content ArticleThe procedure describes immediate action to ensure patient safety, grading of errors (where appropriate) and longer term actions to ensure that individuals, team, group and organisation can learn from errors. This policy is specifically written for all registered staff involved in the prescribing, dispensing, administering or monitoring of medication. The policy is also relevant for managers of such staff and gives instruction for managing staff who have been involved in a medication error.
