Hospital Pharmacist
Vol 10 No 11 p468-469
December 2003

468 Applications invited for hospital medicines management collaborative Ten hospitals will be able to join the hospital medicines management collaborative hosted by the National Prescribing Centre...more

468 Article 12 of POM order to be extended Government ministers have recently accepted recommendations from the Committee on Safety of Medicines that Article 12 of the Prescription-Only Medicine order should be extended to include supplementary prescribers and independent nurse prescribers...more

468 New MHRA medical equipment leaflet launched All hospital pharmacies in England should by now have received copies of a new leaflet for distribution to patients on the safety of medical equipment...more

469 Nominate safety champions, say NPSA Pharmacy departments (in common with other directorates, divisions or departments at National Health Service organisations in both the primary and secondary care sectors) should each have a patient safety champion...more

469 The guild is concerned about pharmacist job evaluations Concern has been expressed by the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists about the job profiles that it has been sent by the Agenda for Change Job Evaluation Working Party (JEWP)...more

468 NEWS IN BRIEF
The dispensary at St Albans hospital in Hertfordshire may close in the new year because of a lack of staff. Patients will be given prescriptions to be dispensed at local community pharmacies. A recruitment campaign will be started to try and attract pharmacists and technicians.

Health services research is not making its full contribution to improvements in patient care, according to a paper published in the BMJ. The Health Foundation is calling for comments on a range of proposals for action to support a new programme of activity to help develop health services research (BMJ 2003;327:1339-41).

Nominations are invited for the Kent, Surrey and Sussex mentor of the year award. The closing date is 5 January 2004 (www.mentoroftheyear.net).

The NHS uses up to three-and-a-half times the number of hospital bed days for conditions such as stroke and hip fracture as health organisations in the US according to a recent report in the BMJ (BMJ 2003;327:1257-60).

Oncology Times, a magazine for all members of the health care team involved in treating cancer, is being launched in February 2004. Subscription information is available on 020 8542 3200.