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95 Secure
electronic forms needed for MUR success Paper-based medicines use reviews do not work because they are not automatically added to patients' notes at their GP practice, according to Howard Stoate, chairman of the All-Party Pharmacy Group
...more
95 National
Pharmacy Association raises MUR concerns with minister Health minister Jane Kennedy, whose portfolio includes pharmacy, met representatives of the National Pharmacy Association last week to discuss current issues and problems in pharmacy
...more
95 NICE lowers
threshold for initiation of statin therapy to prevent CVD Statin
therapy for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease(CVD) has
been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
for adults who have a 20 per cent or greater 10-year risk of developing
CVD. Guidance published this week also recommends statins for adults
with clinical evidence of CVD ...more
96 Pharmacist
independent prescribing new for Wales Independent prescribing
by pharmacists and nurses in Wales was given the go-ahead by the Welsh
Assembly Government last week. As will be the case in England and Scotland,
suitably trained pharmacists in Wales will be able to prescribe any licensed
medicine for any condition, with the exception of Controlled Drugs ...more
96 Progress made
with ePharmacy services in new Scottish contract Pharmacists
in Scotland have this week started to receive details of how they will
access ePharmacy services ...more
96 Exemption
reform examined Reform of the exemption categories for NHS prescriptions in Scotland could be on the cards
...more
96 Pharmacy access
to NHS care records is not being withheld Access to the NHS
care records service is not being withheld from pharmacists, according
to Jeanette Howe, deputy chief pharmaceutical officer for England ...more
97 Society’s
grant funding from Government far outstrips that of other health regulators Grant funding paid to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society by the Department of Health far outstrips the sums given to other health regulators, as revealed in a Parliamentary written answer last week. The Society has questioned the figures
...more
97 Ministers
may decide Society must separate its functions Ministers are considering whether to allow the Royal Pharmaceutical Society to continue to have both professional and regulatory roles or to require the Society to come into line with the majority of other health professional regulators
...more
97 Supervision
plans may push up insurance Government plans to allow community pharmacies to operate without a pharmacist on the premises will inevitably affect liability, insurance providers warned this week
...more
97 Attorneys
for care decisions The Government is consulting on changes to the law which from next year will allow individuals to appoint attorneys to make care decisions on their behalf if in the future they lack the mental capacity to make the decisions themselves
...more
97 Cash for access The Department of Health has allocated over £650m a year to a five-year strategy to give patients better access to new medicines and treatments, and to support researchers conducting health and social care research throughout England
...more
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98 Under-16s
confidentiality upheld Department of Health guidance on confidentiality
for under-16-year-olds seeking advice on contraception and abortion is “fully
in line with the law”, the DoH said this week. The statement came
after a mother who challenged the guidelines at a judicial review in
the High Court ...more
98 NICE consults
on Alzheimer's disease drugs A revised draft of a National
Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence review of Alzheimer's disease
treatments is recommending that donepezil (Aricept), galantamine (Reminyl)
and rivastigmine (Exelon) should be considered as options for patients
with moderately severe disease only (patients with a score of between
10 and 20 points on the mini mental state examination) ...more
98 Cholinesterase
inhibitors may help in mild Alzheimer's Cholinesterase inhibitor
drugs donepezil (Aricept), galantamine (Reminyl) and rivastigmine (Exelon)
can provide improved cognitive function, daily activity and behaviour
to Alzheimer's disease patients with mild to moderate dementia, according
to a review published ...more
98 HIV regimens
for treatment-naive patients compared After comparing two
regimens for treatment-naive HIV patients, researchers suggest that a
tenofovir-emtricitabine regimen is better than a zidovudine-lamivudine
regimen in terms of lowering viral levels and increasing CD4 count ...more
98 Episodic antiretroviral
treatment harms patients Enrolment of subjects in a large
international HIV/AIDS trial to compare episodic with continuous antiretroviral
treatment has ceased. The decision follows an analysis of interim study
data, which showed that subjects on episodic treatment had more than
twice the risk of disease progression compared with those taking continuous
antiretroviral therapy ...more
99 All-round
criticism for appliance payment plans Department of Health
proposals to change a 20-year-old system for paying for medical appliances
have been criticised by pharmacy organisations and appliance wholesalers
alike ...more
99 Wider public
debate on drug safety needed New ways of communicating with
the public about the benefits and risks of drugs are needed, Keith Beard,
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, said earlier this week ...more
99 Suspected
ADRs increase Last year there were 1,013 deaths linked to
adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports, up from 857 in 2004, health minister
Jane Kennedy revealed last week ...more
99 Pharmacovigilance
guideline European pharmacovigilance guidelines for human
medicines are being updated to take account of international harmonisation
and scientific and technical changes ...more
99 Pfizer uses
electronic tags for Viagra in US Pfizer has started to attach
radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags to all packs of Viagra (sildenafil)
sold in the US ...more
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal