News summary

Pharmacists at a sample of pharmacies in Britain will soon be asked for their views on smoking and their role in helping people who want to give up the habit...[more]

Nicotine replacement products used to help people give up smoking are to become prescribable on National Health Service prescriptions in England on April 17...[more]

People working in the National Health Service deserve recognition that they are doing a tremendous job...[more]

The National Health Service in Wales is to benefit from an extra £20m in 2001–02...[more]

The Republic of Ireland is being threatened with legal action at the European Court of Justice by the European Commission because of the slowness of its procedures regarding applications for parallel imports of pharmaceuticals...[more]

Little time remains for applications to the Department of Health for this year's Health and Social Care Awards...[more]

Consumers should be able directly to report side effects of medicines says the April issue of Health Which?...[more]

Researchers from the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences at Brighton university have been awarded £400,000 as part of a £1.3m project to develop new stents for the treatment of coronary artery disease...[more]

The Science Minister (Lord Sainsbury) says that the upgrading of super- computing facilities at Oxford university to allow simulations of the human body will help in the drive to develop better medicines and treatments for heart disease and diabetes (our Lobby correspondent writes)...[more]

Multiple pharmacy groups were having problems recruiting pharmacy staff last year, according to the Institute of Pharmacy Management International's annual salary and recruitment survey...[more]

Judy Cantrill has been appointed to a new professorial chair in medicines (usage, evaluation and policy) at the University of Manchester's School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences...[more]

The tax-funded National Health Service should be replaced by a compulsory insurance scheme, according to the Adam Smith Institute...[more]

Dentists working for the National Health Service are to receive quarterly payments for undertaking continuing professional development...[more]

Novo Nordisk is to give £150,000 over three years to help fight diabetes within Britain's Asian community...[more]

Pharmacists’ views on smoking wanted

Pharmacists at a sample of pharmacies in Britain will soon be asked for their views on smoking and their role in helping people who want to give up the habit.

Over the next few weeks, a random sample of pharmacies in Great Britain will receive the survey questionnaire with a request that each pharmacist working at that pharmacy completes a copy. The pharmacies will also receive a supporting letter signed by the President of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (Christine Glover), the chairman of the National Pharmaceutical Association (Ben Zatland) and the president of EuroPharm Forum (Dr Maja Jaksvevac-Miksva), which outlines the importance of the survey.

The Society and the NPA are lending their support to a European-wide survey to determine pharmacists' attitudes to smoking and their role in smoking cessation.

The survey is being conducted by the EuroPharm Forum — the European forum of national pharmaceutical associations — and the World Health Organisation regional office for Europe. The work is being funded by the European Commission. Similar work is being undertaken with doctors and nurses.

Colette McCreedy, director of pharmacy practice at the NPA, and one of the UK representatives on EuroPharm Forum, said: “I urge pharmacists to find a few minutes to complete the questionnaire so that we can contribute to this European-wide survey. The results will be published in all participating countries in autumn 2001 and will be used to develop further the work done by EuroPharm Forum to promote and develop the role of the pharmacist in smoking cessation.”

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NRT on prescription in England from April 17

Nicotine replacement products used to help people give up smoking are to become prescribable on National Health Service prescriptions in England on April 17.

This will be made possible by their removal from Schedule 10 of the NHS (General Medical Services) Regulations 1992.

Nurse prescribers in England will be able to prescribe nicotine replacement therapy from May 1.

The Department of Health said on April 10 that pharmacies in England should endorse any generic prescriptions with the brand and pack size dispensed until products were listed in Part VIII of the Drug Tariff.

NRT products also become prescribable in Northern Ireland from April 17 and in Scotland from April 30. As things stand at present, they remain blacklisted in Wales.

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NHS staff deserve recognition, says the ABPI president

People working in the National Health Service deserve recognition that they are doing a tremendous job.

This was one of the messages from Bill Fullagar, president of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, speaking at the association's annual dinner on April 5. Mr Fullagar emphasised the importance of partnerships for the industry.

He also said that the pharmaceutical industry supported the idea of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, but that there was a desire to make it work better and to ensure that patients had faster access to medicines. Mr Fullagar was concerned, however, that more should be done to protect research and researchers in the light of the activities of animal rights groups.

Researchers were having to face problems that they should not have to face in a civilised country. These were problems that the industry and Government should tackle together, the ABPI president said.

He also spoke about the importance of the Pharmaceutical Industry Competitiveness Task Force (PICTF) established in November 1999 and which reported at the end of last month.
See also Business

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Another £20m for Welsh health

The National Health Service in Wales is to benefit from an extra £20m in 2001–02.

The new £20m package, announced on April 9 comes partly from the money announced in the Budget last month and through arrangements agreed with the Welsh Finance Minister, Edwina Hart.

The Welsh Health Minister, Jane Hutt, said: “This money funds a number of priority developments, which are on top of the £222m extra for health announced in the 2001–02 budget and the £10m a year package I announced for Improving Health in Wales in February.

“This new money will allow us to make further progress in primary care, tackling cancer and heart disease and in improving staff recruitment and working conditions. It will be very welcome to staff and patients alike and will allow us to continue with our drive to achieve a fairer, high quality health service for the people of Wales.”

Further announcements of how the money will be spent are expected in coming weeks.

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EC threatens Ireland over parallel imports

The Republic of Ireland is being threatened with legal action at the European Court of Justice by the European Commission because of the slowness of its procedures regarding applications for parallel imports of pharmaceuticals.

Brussels alleges that the Irish authorities take on average two-and-a-half years to carry this out, systematically requiring the authorities of the exporting country to verify the information provided by an applicant company and to give information with regard to therapeutic equivalence. The commission considers that in most cases the Irish authorities could apply a simplified procedure to speed this process and has asked Ireland to put a stop to these lengthy procedures because they constitute an illegal trade barrier.

If the Irish government refuses it could be brought before the court because the commission has couched its demand in a reasoned opinion — a legal final warning note which gives Dublin two months in which to draw up a satisfactory solution to the problem.

The court has the power to order Ireland to comply and in the last resort, to order its government to pay massive daily recurring fines until it does.

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Health and Social Care Awards applications wanted

Little time remains for applications to the Department of Health for this year's Health and Social Care Awards.

In an e-mail message to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, the College of Pharmacy Practice, the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists and the National Pharmaceutical Association on April 6, the Department says that there have been no applications with a pharmacy theme. It adds that the chief pharmaceutical officer (Dr Jim Smith) wants the awards to be promoted as widely within pharmacy as is thought fit.

Pharmacists who wish to apply for an award, worth £10,000 to the winners and £2,000 to runners-up, have until April 20 to submit their applications.

The awards, open to workers and organisations across the public and voluntary sectors and independent social care providers in England, will be made in six categories. They are: individual lifetime achievement; innovation; improving the working lives of staff; modernisation; improving people’s lives; and partnership working. Two awards — one for health and one for social care — are available in each category except partnership (one award only) and improving people's lives.

In the improving lives category there is one award for improving the lives of people with heart disease, one for cancer, one for adoption services (social award only), one for innovative direct payments schemes (social award only). A further two awards (one health, one social) are available in the improving lives category for work in mental health, older people, young people aged under 16-years, helping carers and disability work.

Applications will be judged by panels of experts from relevant areas against specified criteria and the Secretary of State for Health will present the awards in Manchester on July 5.

Details of the awards, how to apply and the judging criteria can be found on the internet here.

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Let patients report side effects, the Consumers Association says

Consumers should be able directly to report side effects of medicines says the April issue of Health Which?

In the first of a planned series on the side-effects of medicines, the Consumers' Association calls for the creation of a system that allows this because there is gross under-reporting of side effects by general practitioners and other doctors. The association supports this claim with figures that show that the average number of yellow-card reports on all medicines is less than one per GP per year.

It also points out that the yellow-card scheme failed to reveal benzodiazepine dependency, with only 28 reports being made over 17 years.

“Patients are not being told when they are prescribed newly licensed medicines,” the association says. “The Medicines Control Agency identifies new medicines with an upside-down black triangle symbol on information provided to doctors, but this isn't included in patient information. The symbol should be expanded to patient information, backed up with clear explanations from doctors.”

The Consumers Association points out that the Food and Drug Administration in the United States actively encourages reports from consumers, either directly or via doctors, while the MCA insists that medical interpretation of side effects is vital.

Other planned articles in the series include a Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin report on the black triangle scheme on April 17 and an article in the June issue of Health Which? on concerns about a lack of information given to patients about potentially serious side effects.

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Brighton wins funding for work on biocompatability of stents

Researchers from the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences at Brighton university have been awarded £400,000 as part of a £1.3m project to develop new stents for the treatment of coronary artery disease. The award has been made by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council as part of a multicentre project involving the University of Leeds, Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, the Royal Sussex County Hospital and two industrial partners.

The aim is to develop stents over the next three years which have improved biocompatibility through the use of novel surface treatments and materials.

The Brighton team, led by Dr Sergey Mikhalovsky, will play a key role in the in vitro evaluation of the biocompatibility of the stent materials.

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New science funding announced

The Science Minister (Lord Sainsbury) says that the upgrading of super- computing facilities at Oxford university to allow simulations of the human body will help in the drive to develop better medicines and treatments for heart disease and diabetes (our Lobby correspondent writes).

Lord Sainsbury expressed this view as he announced a £71m package of funding primarily aimed at researching the causes of phobias. He said that the programme would also provide valuable data to help combat a wide range of illnesses, including schizophrenia, autism, post-traumatic stress disorder, memory loss in the elderly, tuberculosis and cancer.

The funding includes £6m for upgrading the world-leading ISIS neutron scattering facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, run jointly by the Department of Trade and Industry, the Wellcome Trust and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

The awards also include: new imaging scanners at Nottingham university and University College London for research into the functions of the human brain; research at Glasgow university into the genes that trigger such diseases as depression, asthma and cancer; and laboratories at Imperial College London to use fibre optics to advance diagnostic techniques for cancer.

The balance of £41m from the fund will be spread around the seven research councils to invest in new equipment.

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IPMI survey highlights problems with recruiting pharmacy staff

Multiple pharmacy groups were having problems recruiting pharmacy staff last year, according to the Institute of Pharmacy Management International's annual salary and recruitment survey. The situation is likely to be exacerbated this year as the fallow year leads to a large reduction in the number of new pharmacists.

The IPMI received responses to its survey from companies which between them owned 4,900 pharmacies and employed 8,500 pharmacists. The survey was sent to groups owning five or more pharmacies.

Respondents said that the time to fill pharmacy vacancies ranged from five to 30 weeks, with most posts taking 12 or more weeks to fill. As a result, there was a high level of employee pharmacist vacancies, up to 15 per cent of total places for some chains. All but one respondent said that recruitment had been more difficult last year than in 1999. Coastal and rural areas were cited as giving particular difficulties. There was also some evidence of difficulties being seen in central London due to increased costs of living.

The number of female pharmacists (67 per cent) and the number of pharmacists working part-time (22.5 per cent) had both increased from the previous year’s survey.

The mean figure on a per head basis for salary increases in 2000 was just short of 4 per cent. However, some companies had given pay rises of up to 10 per cent. Salary increases this year were predicted to be in the range of 3.5–4 per cent.

Most respondents said that they were able to obtain sufficient locum pharmacists other than at peak holiday times. Again problems were noted in rural areas. An increasing number of locums were reported to be from overseas, especially Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa. These pharmacists were attracted by the currently favourable Sterling exchange rate with their home countries and they preferred to work in major cities. Locum rates in England were in the range £16–£17 per hour, £15–£15.50 in Scotland.

Pharmacy shop staff have seen pay rises of 18 per cent since 1998, mainly due to the introduction of the national minimum wage. Qualified dispensing technicians are also in demand, due to increasing prescription volumes, and most respondents were paying rates of more than £5 per hour.

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New chair at Manchester

Judy Cantrill has been appointed to a new professorial chair in medicines (usage, evaluation and policy) at the University of Manchester’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Professor Cantrill's first target will be to develop a policy-relevant health service research on medicines. She is also expected to establish Manchester as a recognised training centre for researchers into medicines usage management and policy and to provide a focus on medicines in the university’s new Institute of Health Sciences.

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Insurance plan proposed for NHS

The tax-funded National Health Service should be replaced by a compulsory insurance scheme, according to the Adam Smith Institute.

The institute argues that people should pay the equivalent of their tax contribution to the NHS into social insurance funds instead. These funds would compete for members and buy a specified minimum standard of health care from NHS or private sources. Patients would be able to top up their contributions to buy non-clinical extras such as greater privacy or convenience.

The institute also suggests that Britain should follow the European pattern of co-payments for minor services. France, Germany and Switzerland, charge daily fees for hospital stays; while patients in Austria and Sweden pay a capped amount towards the cost of their medicines.

The institute says that money released by co-payments should be ring-fenced for use on ending the postcode lottery and providing access to expensive medicines.

According to the institute, the Government would need to increase health spending by 9.7 per cent in real terms over the next four years — far higher than the 6.1 per cent that has been promised — just to reach the European average.

“Without radical change we will always be lagging,” says the ASI director, Dr Eamonn Butler. “At present, tax pays for 84 per cent of UK health care and only 16 per cent is paid for privately. But most other countries are moving towards a two-thirds/one-third split. A big increase in private spending is the only way to give us world class health care.”

“Funding UK health care: innovation to avert a crisis”, ASI, 23 Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BL, price £3).

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Dentists to be paid for development

Dentists working for the National Health Service are to receive quarterly payments for undertaking continuing professional development. Dentists will be paid for 10 hours of verifiable CPD each year and for up to a further five hours of approved training, plus travelling time. Payments will be at the hourly rate of £52, scaled down by the extent to which the dentist undertakes private work.

The General Dental Council requires dentists to undertake 75 hours of CPD every five years.

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Novo Nordisk’s diabetes donation

Novo Nordisk is to give £150,000 over three years to help fight diabetes within Britain's Asian community.

The money is to go to research specialists based at Leicester General Hospital.

There are more Asians, pro rata, in Leicester than in any other city in Britain and Asians have more than double the risk of developing diabetes than the white community.

The researchers believe that low birth weight, lack of exercise and poor diet may be contributing to the high incidence of diabetes among Asians.

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