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601 Clinical
trial pharmacy services guidance launched New practice guidance
on clinical trial pharmacy services was launched this week ...more
601 Section
60 Order consultation delayed again The timetable for the modernisation of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s regulatory processes has been put back for a fourth time
...more
601 AfC
pay deadlines missed Only 21 per cent of NHS organisations had hit the Agenda for Change target of transferring at least half their staff onto the appropriate AfC payband by the end of April, Andrew Foster, director of workforce at the Department of Health, said at the NHS annual human resources conference last week
...more
601 Vote
on new EU directive Last week, the European Parliament voted
on a single directive to replace 15 directives that govern the recognition
of professional qualifications across member states, including two that
apply to pharmacy (85/432/EEC and 85/433/EEC) ...more
601 New
contract VAT concerns VAT implications of the new contract arrangements were raised at the National Pharmaceutical Association’s board of management’s April meeting and at last week’s Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee meeting
...more
601 PSNC
contract roadshows Roadshows are to be organised later in the year by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee to provide information and support to help contractors in England fully comply with the new community pharmacy contract services, the PSNC’s chief executive Sue Sharpe said at a press briefing following last week’s committee meeting
...more
602 NHS
stop-smoking services success rate increased The number of
people who have quit smoking with the help of NHS stop-smoking services
has increased by almost 50 per cent in one year, according to provisional
Government figures ...more
602 Health
responsibilities reconfigured as new minister given pharmacy Jane
Kennedy, the newly appointed Minister of State for quality and patient
safety has been given the pharmacy portfolio previously assigned to Rosie
Winterton ...more
602 Easier access
to negligence compensation announced Victims of clinical negligence
in the NHS are to get access to a new scheme for redress ...more
602 £140,000 made available for research on the new contract The
Pharmacy Practice Research Trust, which is supported by the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society, is offering up to £140,000 to fund a research project
exploring the implementation of the new contractual frameworks for community
pharmacy ...more
603 PCTs see
pharmacies as businesses, NAO concludes Primary care trusts
prefer to view community pharmacies as businesses, rather than primary
care providers, when considering NHS local improvement finance trust
(LIFT) schemes ...more
603 Weight gain
counters benefits of quitting smoking on lung function Preventing
weight gain after smoking cessation could maximise the beneficial effects
of quitting on lung function, according to a study published this month
...more
603 UniChem launches
guide to advanced services UniChem is launching its second “Solutions”
guide, to help pharmacy contractors meet the requirements of advanced
services under the new community pharmacy contract ...more
603 Locums can
earn loyalty points with agency A loyalty points system for
locums has been launched by Healthcare Locums ...more
603 New SPGC
website The Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council has relaunched
its website ...more
603 Prescription
charge refunds The Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council
wrote to community pharmacists this week to clarify that pharmacies in
Scotland do not have to give prescription charge refunds ...more
603 Indemnity
policy for technicians Professional indemnity insurance is
being offered to pharmacy technicians and accuracy checking dispensary
assistants by NPA subsidiary Pharmacists Professional Indemnity Ltd ...more
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604 Contraceptive
advice may confuse New guidance on the advice that health
professionals should give to women who have missed some of their oral
contraceptive pills may be confusing, claim the authors of a comment
published in The Lancet this week ...more
604 Is EHC reaching
those women most at risk? More research is needed into whether
new routes of supply of emergency hormonal contraception are appropriate
for younger women and those from lower socio-economic groups, researchers
say ...more
604 LCD drug
pack wins award A tablet or capsule pack with an LCD screen,
showing patients how to take their medicine, has won James Barber, University
of Leeds, a design award sponsored by Almus ...more
604 UK mumps
epidemic threat Cases of mumps in England and Wales increased
dramatically last year, the Health Protection Agency has announced ...more
604 CSM warning
on atypical antipsychotics not heeded Risperidone (Risperdal)
and olanzapine (Zyprexa) are still being prescribed to a large proportion
of people with dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Society,
despite Committee on Safety of Medicines advice that they should not
be used for this indication ...more
604 Bleeding
risk offsets aspirin benefit in healthy over-70s Benefits
of low-dose aspirin on the risk of cardiovascular disease in patients
aged 70 years or over who do not have overt cardiovascular disease are
offset by increases in bleeding, a study published online has shown ...more
604 Vitamin E
may protect against Parkinson’s disease Dietary vitamin
E may protect against the development of Parkinson’s disease, a
meta-analysis of eight studies of dietary vitamin intake has shown ...more
605 Trastuzumab
halves the risk of recurrence in early breast cancer The HER2-receptor
blocker trastuzumab (Herceptin) reduces the risk of recurrence by 46
per cent in women with early-stage breast cancer expressing HER2, according
to results from the international HERA (Herceptin adjuvant) study, which
specialists agreed would change practice ...more
605 Angiogenesis
inhibitor extends survival in lung cancer and advanced breast cancer The
angiogenesis inhibitor bevacizumab (rhuMAb-VEGF; Avastin) extends survival
in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and in women with
advanced breast cancer, according to studies reported this week at the
American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting ...more
605 Chemotherapy
improves survival in operable GI cancer Giving chemotherapy
before and after surgery improves survival in patients with operable
gastric and lower oesophageal cancers, according to a Medical Research
Council study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology
annual meeting this week ...more
605 Doxorubicin-docetaxel
toxicity stops breast cancer trial early Combination therapy
with doxorubicin and docetaxel for breast cancer was associated with
a high risk of life-threatening complications and led to premature termination
of a trial involving 627 women ...more
605 Letrozole
improves survival Letrozole (Femara) offers a survival benefit
over tamoxifen in hormone-sensitive early breast cancer ...more
605 Rituximab
maintenance therapy Maintenance therapy with rituximab (MabThera)
in patients with follicular non-Hodgkin’s and mantle cell lymphoma
who were initially treated with rituximab and chemotherapy almost doubled
time to relapse, new data suggest ...more
606 Statins cost-effective
for wider range of people Statin therapy may be cost-effective
in a wider range of people than was previously thought, new data suggest
...more
606 Isotretinoin
does not increase depression Treating adolescents who have
moderate to severe acne with isotretinoin (Roaccutane) does not increase
symptoms of depression, a new study suggests ...more
606 Paediatric
trials network A network that supports research into children’s
medicines has been launched ...more
606 Split paracetamol
suppositories Researchers show that paracetamol is uniformly
distributed in suppositories. However, when anaesthetists split them
(to achieve doses for children) a wide range of doses were recorded ...more
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal