Latest posts
SPS NICE Bites – Cellulitis
The NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS) have published the latest in the NICE Bites series of summary prescribing recommendations from NICE guidelines – covering antimicrobial treatment for cellulitis & erysipelas.
EPMA Systems & Safe Discharge – HSIB Report
The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) have published a report on electronic prescribing and medicines administration systems (EPMA) and safe discharge. The HSIB investigation was triggered by a reference event involving anticoagulants that met defined Outcome Impact, Systemic Risk and Learning Potential criteria. The event highlighted issues with discharge communication. The HSIB made four recommendations to NHSX relating to electronic discharge processes (including the interface between EPMA systems and electronic discharge systems), use of standardised testing processes for EPMA configuration, a process for recognising and acting on digital issues in the Patient Safety Incident Management System (PSIMS) and the development of interoperability […]
Inhaler Switching – No Evidence of Negative Impact on Patients or Healthcare Utilisation
A self-controlled case series study led by researchers from the National Heart & Lung Institute and published in Thorax has found that “switching to an equivalent inhaler in patients with asthma or COPD appeared safe and did not negatively affect patient’s health or healthcare utilisation.” The researchers identified a cohort of 569,901 asthma and 171,231 COPD regular inhaler users and investigated the effects of switching inhalers. All switches examined (brand-to-generic, brand-to-brand, generic-to-generic, generic-to-brand) were associated with increased adherence and reduced exacerbations across all sub-groups – with no significant change in the rate of consultations, respiratory-events and adverse-medication events.
Managing Medicines for Adults receiving Community Social Care – Top Tips
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and the Royal College of General Practitioners have collaborated to produce “Top tips for managing medicines for adults receiving social care in the community” – a resource for GPs and pharmacists, part of the Involved and informed: good community medicines support intiative to encourage better medicines support for people who are receiving social care services in their homes. The campaign focuses on the NICE guideline and quality standard on managing medicines in the community, and includes action-orientated messages for specific key audiences: local authority and clinical commissioning group (CCG) commissioners; social workers and other adult Care Act assessors; home care […]
AECOPD – CRP testing reduces antibiotic use
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) have published a Signal highlighting the conclusion of a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine: “CRP-guided prescribing of antibiotics for exacerbations of COPD in primary care clinics resulted in a lower percentage of patients who reported antibiotic use and who received antibiotic prescriptions from clinicians, with no evidence of harm.” The Signal adds that “This NIHR-funded trial provides strong evidence that a rapid test for raised CRP levels, which occur with serious infection, could help prescribers in primary care make better decisions about who needs antibiotics to treat a flare-up […]
Opioids for Persistent Pain – PROMPPT intervention
The National Institute for Health Research are funding a five year research programme to design and test a Proactive clinical Review of patients taking Opioid Medicines long-term for persistent Pain led by clinical Pharmacists in primary care Teams (PROMPPT intervention). The programme starts with the Q-PROMPPT study. Q-PROMPPT will use a range of methods to find out about patients, clinical pharmacists and GPs’ experiences and views on: Using regular medication, particularly opioids, for long-term pain How pain medicines are currently managed and how they could be reviewed in future The idea of clinical pharmacists in GP surgeries reviewing patients on regular opioids What would make a pain […]
ONE YOU – Every Mind Matters
The NHS ONE YOU website has launched an Every Mind Matters toolkit with advice on simple things we can all do to look after our mental health – and help others to do the same.
Polypharmacy – London RMOC Subgroup Report
The Polypharmacy Working Group of the London Regional Medicines Optimisation Committee have published an updated version of their report on Medicines Optimisation Reviews to Reduce Inappropriate Polypharmacy and Promote Safe Deprescribing. The report explains that the “…Working Group has been established to identify the key features of polypharmacy and to summarise how medication review can be used to address inappropriate polypharmacy….. [to]….. make a recommendation to the London RMOC on the delivery model necessary to tackle problematic polypharmacy in the region.”