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    By Mark Voce in Medication, NHS, Patient Choice, Pharma, Research

    Tell us your views on our draft guidance for pharmacist prescribers

    March 29, 2019

    Tell us your views We are the regulator for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and registered pharmacies in Great Britain. We set standards for pharmacy professionals. We are consulting on guidance for pharmacist prescribers which sets out the key areas they should consider when prescribing to ensure they provide safe and effective care. Pharmacist prescribers can diagnose conditions and prescribe medicines to patients. They often work in GP practices as well as in other healthcare settings, and can also work as part of an online prescribing service.   Read our proposals and tell us your views now   We want to understand […]
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    By Peter Thorley in Access to treatment, Doctors, Health Care, Information Technology, Mental Health, NHS, Patient Choice, Public Health, Regulation, Research, Well-being

    Patient online consultation requests ‘mirror’ busiest surgery times

    March 26, 2019

    Patients still make enquiries at busiest hours, despite 24/7 online access · University of Warwick publishes first independent evaluation of one of the main providers of online consultation platforms · Targeting services at younger patients and those with general administrative enquiries could be most effective · “In reality, patients were seeking access to health care at the same times and for the same sort of problems than they did using traditional routes.” Says supervising author. Patients are using online consultations in the same way they would arrange a consultation via traditional means, a new independent evaluation by the University of […]
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    By Peter Beresford in Health and Social Care Act 2012, Health Care, NHS, Social Care

    Root And Branch Reform Of Social Care Needed

    March 21, 2019

    Peter Beresford, Professor of Citizen Participation at Essex University and Co-Chair of Shaping Our Lives, the user led organisation. Nothing less than a root and branch reform of English social care is now needed. Its funding and principles must be radically reviewed. Only this will end its permanent state of crisis. Nothing else will make anything like a reasonable life possible for the millions of older and disabled people and family carers now suffering-  sometimes in extreme – from its gross failure and ever declining reach. Some commentators still wait hopefully for the promised government green paper that never comes, […]
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    By Paul Day in Medication

    Pharmacy technicians: an assessment of the current UK landscape, and proposals to develop community pharmacist and pharmacy technician roles and skill mix to meet the needs of the public

    March 16, 2019

    The PDA have published an in-depth report that assesses the current role and capabilities of pharmacy technicians in the UK community pharmacy sector. The 250-page document, which has taken 3 years to compile, highlights proposals to develop the roles of community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, and the skill mix required to meet patients’ needs. The in-depth report has been developed because, in recent years as the pressure upon the NHS has been increasing, the government has been looking at ways to improve the accessibility to healthcare in the UK, to meet the needs of the public. The government has been […]
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    By Herbert C Agnew in Accountability, Health and Social Care Act 2012, Health Care, NHS

    Say no to the removal of local accountability in the NHS

    March 13, 2019

    Background The NHS Executive outlined eight groups of suggested legislative changes in the NHS Long Term Plan and, as promised in the Plan, these have now been set out in further detail in Implementing the NHS Long Term Plan: Proposals for possible changes to legislation [1]. The intention is to make it easier for NHS organisations to work together. Ostensibly these proposals are supposed to help the NHS improve its delivery of services but we see real problems here. Principal objection The Health and Social Care Act 2012 was a package promoting a range of checks and balances on the […]
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    By Paul Day in Uncategorized

    Overwhelming trade union recognition ballot result shows how out of touch Boots senior management are from their pharmacists.

    March 12, 2019

    The result of the historic ballot was 3,229 votes (92.4%) in favour of the trade union, with only 266 votes (7.6%) supporting the senior management proposal.  This also meant that 47.5% of those eligible to vote supported the union, which surpassed the 40% threshold required for the union to succeed. On the question of the ballot and what happens next at Boots, the union will now reach a recognition agreement with the company under the guidance of the Central Arbitration Committee. The PDA Union believe that the strength of feeling from pharmacists about the need to improve their employment is […]
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    By Bob Phillips in Health Care, NHS, Professional opinion

    Social Enterprise in Health and Care

    March 10, 2019

    We welcome comments on this article which has come out of the Reclaim Social Care Campaign. It is not SHA policy, but it raises important questions relevant to both social care and the NHS. This is a wide field in which a variety of species flourish, some of which are dangerous invasives. We need to cultivate systematically to ensure that what grows in this field is healthy, productive, and not a threat to other growth. We need to be able to classify, in order to isolate rogues, and then eradicate them. We need to be able clearly to identify some […]
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    By Jim Gralton in NHS, Primary Care, Public Health, Wales

    PUTTING THE BEVAN PRINCIPLE IN PLACE ..

    March 6, 2019

    It is over 40 years since the Alma-Ata Declaration asserted the crucial role of primary care in the promotion of the health of people world wide. Since then global health policy has attempted to give effect to the Declaration with varying levels of success. The situation has been no different in Wales. The Wanless Review in 2003 re-emphasised this message. It stated “ …(t)he current configuration of health services places an insupportable burden on the acute sector and its workforce. This is the most expensive part of the system … (t)he primary care sector in turn is not sufficiently resourced […]
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    By Shaun Noble in Campaigns, NHS, NHS Management, Staffing, Work and health

    Security staff at Southampton General Hospital lack correct protective equipment when attacked, says Unite

    March 5, 2019

    Security staff at Southampton General Hospital being attacked in the A&E department is key to an industrial dispute over pay and sickness pay. Unite, Britain and Ireland’s largest union, said its 21 security staff members were being attacked on a regular basis by members of the public either under the influence of drink or drugs, or with mental health problems. Unite is currently holding a ballot for strike action or industrial action short of a strike of its members, employed by Mitie Security Ltd, at Southampton General Hospital over pay and conditions. The ballot closes on Wednesday 15 March. Unite […]
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    By Roy Trevelion in Uncategorized

    Remembering Dr Mags Portman: pioneer activist for sexual health

    February 25, 2019

    A tribute to the much-loved Mags Portman on the sad news of her death First published by HIV i-Base in HIV Treatment Bulletin (HTB) on 20 February 2019 It is with great sadness that we have to report the death of the much-loved sexual health pioneer and community activist Dr Mags Portman. Mags had immense energy and enthusiasm for everything that she became involved with. Most recently this included linking with community activists to demand and enable access to PrEP. Mags initially trained as a GP in Glasgow, qualifying in 2003, where she also worked at the Steve Retson Project that […]
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    By Roy Trevelion in Access to treatment, Accountability, Brexit, Health Care, Health Law, Medication, NHS, Pharma, Public and Patient Involvement, Public Health

    The Good Law Project has warned legal challenge to the DHSC over serious shortage medicines protocol

    February 24, 2019

    The Pharmaceutical Journal reports that the Good Law Project threaten DHSC with legal challenge over “failure to consult properly” From The Pharmaceutical Journal 21 FEB 2019 By Carolyn Wickware: The Good Law Project has warned the Department of Health and Social Care that it will start judicial review proceedings if serious shortage protocol powers are not revoked on the grounds that the consultation was “insufficient and unlawful”. A non-profit group has threatened the government with legal action unless it revokes new powers designed to allow pharmacists to switch patients’ medicines if there is a shortage. The Good Law Project has said it will […]
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    By permission of the author in Health Care, Mental Health, NHS, Nursing, Social Care, Staffing

    Mental health and wellbeing of NHS staff is essential for our health service to thrive, BMA warns

    February 21, 2019

    Responding to the Health Secretary’s pledge to overhaul mental health and wellbeing services for NHS staff following the launch of a Health Education England review, BMA mental health policy lead, Dr Andrew Molodynski, said: “Staff are fundamental to the delivery of patient care in the NHS and without a healthy workforce our health service can barely function, let alone thrive. “Given the current pressures that the NHS workforce is under, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s commitment to improving mental health and wellbeing support for staff is both timely and necessary. “We know that doctors’ mental health […]
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