Hospital Pharmacist
Vol 11 No 5 p171-172
May 2004

171 Communication between IT systems boosted by dictionary Communication between different IT systems in the health service will be supported by the introduction of the NHS Dictionary of Medicine and Devices (dm+d) more

171 Independent nurse prescribing extended Independent nurse prescribers across the UK will be able to prescribe an additional 60 prescription-only medicines under proposals published by the Department of Health. This will take the number of prescription only medicines prescribable by independent prescribers to over 200 more

171 Agenda for change technician profiles agreed Five pharmacy technician job profiles have now been agreed by the Association of Pharmacy Technicians United Kingdon (APTUK) and the Job Evaluation Working Party for “Agenda for change” more

172 Help for NHS pharmacists to climb on the property ladder Hospital pharmacists who are struggling to get on the property ladder may be eligible for assistance under the “key worker living” scheme, announced by the UK Government earlier this spring. The scheme, set up because high house prices have led to recruitment problems in some areas, is available in parts of London, East Anglia and the south-east of England more

172 Clinical trials regulations now in force New regulations concerning how clinical trials are run came into force on 1 May more

171 NEWS IN BRIEF

Scanning discharge prescriptions and emailing them to GPs was the project undertaken by Alex Jennings, University Hospital Aintree, as winner of the IT interest group of the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists and First DataBank Europe IT award 2004. A full report on this project and the rest of the group’s annual seminar will appear in the next issue of Hospital Pharmacist.

Two new information resources have been launched recently by the National Prescribing Centre. “A glossary of prescribing terms” (PDF 320K) and “A practical guide and framework of competencies for all professionals using patient group directions” is here

Adverse drug reactions reports can be submitted electronically by accessing a new website launched by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the Committee on the Safety of Medicines. The URL for the site is www.yellowcard.gov.uk. Written yellow cards can still be submitted by post.

Dying is more expensive for hospitals than ageing, according to a recent study available from www.bmj.com. The authors (Dixon et al) looked at hospital death statistics for 1999-2000 and found that acute care costs do not increase with age per se — the greatest costs are incurred in the final years of life, no matter at what age this happens to be.

Progress made in the first year on the National Service Framework for diabetes is contained in a report published by the Department of Health.