What does a good hospital pharmacy service look like?
May 2012
New professional standards published by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society aim to bolster medicines optimisation in hospitals by outlining what a quality pharmacy service looks like. What are the next steps?
Biosimilars: views dissimilar
April 2012
Patents of several monoclonal antibodies will expire over the next few years and biosimilar versions are already in the pipeline. What might this mean for industry, regulatory bodies and clinicians?
How fake medicines can be kept out of the supply chain
March 2012
Legislation from the European Commission, once implemented, will mean that pharmacists must check the authenticity of a drug at the time that it is dispensed. How will such a system work?
How pharmacy education and training is being shaped
February 2012
Plans are afoot to overhaul pharmacy education and training in England and the Government has recently announced its plan to create a new body Health Education England to oversee the process
How the UK could be made more attractive to industry
January 2012
That the NHS is slow in adopting innovative technologies seems to be a recurring theme . . .
If QIPP is only about cost cuts we will have missed the point
December 2011
Squeezing budgets is an obvious way for pharmacy departments to save money. But if “quality, innovation, productivity and prevention” ambitions are to be realised, it cannot end there . . .
Is there a middle ground for outpatient dispensing?
November 2011All trusts are looking at ways to drive efficiencies. Staff at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust believe that their new model of outpatient dispensing will save time and money
Teamwork receives a boost at the RPS Conference
October 2011At the recent RPS Conference, Clinical Pharmacist supported a session on teamwork in practice, during which pharmacists from across Great Britain described their innovative and collaborative projects
What’s new for patients in the community
September 2011Now is the time to consider how to support the latest pharmacy services soon to be provided in the community
Outsourcing NHS pharmacy services: good or bad idea?
July 2011Some hospital pharmacies have outsourced their outpatient dispensing; others are investigating the feasibility of doing so. What are the advantages? And, perhaps more importantly, what are the risks?
Pharma-sauruses take note: don’t ignore social media
June 2011At a recent national conference pharmacists heard about social media from a colleague at the very beginning of his pharmacy career
“Hot-synch” your brain with the latest evidence
May 2011The volume of clinical evidence that is published means it is impossible to keep on top of it all, so pharmacists must establish methods of identifying their learning needs and using their time wisely
New research model could revitalise the drug pipeline
April 2011In March 2011 the Innovative Medicines Initiative launched its second wave of projects. We describe how this public-private partnership could boost the outputs of R&D from the biopharmaceutical sector
Patient safety ambitions to be driven from the front line
March 2011The NHS in England will undergo significant changes in the coming years. How will healthcare staff ensure patient care is safe amid this turmoil when the National Patient Safety Agency is to be abolished?
Practical challenges now lie ahead for value-based pricing
February 2011
Value-based pricing aims to align the price of a medicine with its value.
How could its implementation affect pharmacists in day-to-day practice?
REVIEW of 2010
A troubling year for the NHS: what happened to health in 2010
January 2011
2010 was a year of many changes — a new coalition Government, plans for a radical shake-up of the NHS and a new professional body, to name a few. Here Matthew Wright and Kate Towers reflect on some of the milestones
How pharmacy leaders can ride out the financial storm
January 2011Within the NHS, organisational changes alongside financial uncertainty mean chief pharmacists, more than ever, require strong leadership skills. So what can they do to support both staff and trust priorities
On-call negotiations — get involved now
December 2010Pharmacists need to get to grips with the newly published principles for on-call payments and become involved in negotiating local arrangements
Give adverse drug reactions the yellow card
November 2010
Through a collaboration with the MHRA, medicines information
pharmacists are tackling the under-reporting of adverse drug reactions
Clinical homecare providers are warmed up and ready
October 2010Increasingly patients are receiving their medicines via clinical homecare companies. How are these providers meeting challenges such as NHS budget cuts and calls for increased governance?
Smile… you’re on camera!
September 2010
Telepharmacy is allowing pharmacists to spend less time in the dispensary and more time on the wards
In the NHS a QIPP is no joke
July 2010New commercial support units will help achieve efficiencies in drug purchasing
Time for hospital pharmacy to step out of the shadows
June 2010At the recent joint conference of the United Kingdom Clinical Pharmacy Association and the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists, discussion turned to how hospital pharmacy can better market its worth
Are you and your patients going to be HbA1c-ready?
May 2010
Changes driven by international consensus are nothing new — causing confusion in the short term and offering some benefit thereafter. The switching of units for HbA1c reporting looks set to follow that pattern
Why PCT commissioner and provider functions have split
April 2010Talk of primary care trusts separating their commissioner and provider functions is nothing new but it might be something that many pharmacists not working in PCTs do not fully understand
Take your outpatient prescription to the community pharmacy down the corridor
March 2010Outpatient dispensing represents a substantial financial and time burden for hospital pharmacies. For some, the solution lies outside the NHS
Do not underestimate the challenge facing the NHS
February 2010Government funding for the NHS has increased annually for over 60 years. From next year, and for the following three years, it will be cut. How might those working in hospital pharmacies be affected?
Blog, tweet and wiki your way into the new decade
January 2010In November 2009 Clinical Pharmacist launched a Facebook page as a new way of keeping readers up to date. Here we take a look at the growth of Web 2.0 and the advent of e-professionalism
Accreditation of advanced practice is on the horizon
December 2009Specialist groups have long offered support for pharmacists to develop themselves professionally. What have been lacking are universal frameworks for ensuring competence at advanced levels of practice
Getting bang for buck from patient access schemes
November 2009Under various "patient access" schemes, NHS organisations need to ensure they are claiming back the cost of certain expensive medicines from manufacturers. But with whom does the buck stop?
When the "responsible pharmacist" could be you
October 2009If one trust supplies another with stock medicines, that constitutes wholesale dealing. Depending on the extent of this activity, a wholesale dealer's licence — or a responsible pharmacist — is needed
Pandemic flu: are we ready for round 2?
September 2009
With the experience of an outbreak of swine flu under their belts, we ask primary care organisations what they have learnt
Should pharmacies prepare all monoclonal antibodies?
July/August 2009In UK hospitals, intravenous cytotoxic medicines are always prepared in aseptic manufacturing units. Monoclonal antibodies are not. Whether or not this should be the case is subject to debate
In case you haven't heard the news...
June 2009The Royal Pharmaceutical Society is changing. In 2010 it will cease to be a regulator and will relaunch as a "new professional body" for pharmacy
Incentives for patients: what new research could reveal
May 2009Is it ethical to offer patients money to take their medicines? How is patient behaviour affected when financial incentives are offered? A new research centre seeks to find the answers to these questions
Pharmacy know-how and ideas enrich e-learning
April 2009An e-learning tool, funded by NHS South Central and written by medicines information pharmacists, was launched in March 2009. We take a look at how it came about
The day doctors voiced new faith in clinical pharmacists
March 2009Pharmacists know their worth in improving patient safety, but those outside the profession are not always aware. Now, the Royal College of Physicians has put its weight behind clinical pharmacy. Gareth Malson reports
Helping patients take their medicines as prescribed
February 2009NICE has suggested ways of improving medicines adherence but stops short of specifying who is responsible for implementing its guidance
Patient safety comes first
January 2009Most acute NHS trusts in England are signed up to the Patient Safety First Campaign. Pharmacists should be aware of how the safety initiative could affect their practice
