Hospital Pharmacist
2005;12:427-428
December 2005

427 Pharmacists to be allowed to prescribe any licensed medicine Pharmacist independent prescribers will be enabled to prescribe any licensed medicine for any medical condition from spring next year, with the exception of controlled drugs, the Department of Health announced last month. This will also apply to extended formulary nurse prescribers more

427 HIV-drug resistance increasing in UK The UK has one of the highest rates of primary resistance in the world — and it is increasing, a recent BMJ study reveals. Concerns have been raised that this may lead to a second wave epidemic of drug-resistant HIV more

427 Flu vaccine shortage Despite 14 million doses of flu vaccine being available this year — far more than the 11 million doses required to vaccinate the “recommended” population, in England the Department of Health is supplying vaccines from its contingency stock of 400,000 doses more

427 Listening Friends Scheme The Listening Friends Scheme is seeking to recruit more volunteer pharmacists to train as Listening Friends owing to recent increased usage of the service more

428 UKCPA winners announced at symposium Roger Knaggs, from Queen's Medical Centre University Hospitals NHS Trust, Nottingham, was presented the 2005 Napp pain award at the United Kingdom Clinical Pharmacy Association symposium in Leeds recently more

428 NICE consults on new guideline proposals Proposed changes to the process of developing clinical guidelines have been published by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence more

428 Illegal drug use adds to A&E burden Use of illegal drugs could contribute to one million visits to accident and emergency and 400,000 acute hospital admissions in England each year, say researchers more

428 APTUK elections The two candidates standing for election as president of the Association of Pharmacy Technicians (UK) next year are Sarah Wilcox, pharmacy technician training lead at University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, and Steve Acres, operations manager at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust more

427 NEWS IN BRIEF

Advertisements for all newly licensed medicines now have to be vetted by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency before the advertisement is launched. Previously the MHRA only vetted advertisements for some new medicines on the basis of risk assessment. The change follows publication of the Health Select Committee’s report on the influence of the pharmaceutical industry.

The Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK says that it hopes a band 8 job profile for pharmacy technicians will be established for use in the new year. “There are a small number of technicians working in a senior role that we feel need a band 8 profile,” said Darren Leech, APTUK president. He said that APTUK has submitted the relevant documentation to the job evaluation group via the trade union Unison and expects to receive a draft profile shortly.

The College of Pharmacy Practice has revised its accreditation scheme. Material will now be accredited against the competencies of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s continuing professional development programme. Accreditation by one of the college faculties will involve the material being assessed against the required competencies for the area covered by that faculty. Further details are available at www.collpharm.org.uk

Patient identification wrist bands for hospital inpatients should be worn at all times with the correct information shown, the National Patient Safety Agency advises. This follows the 236 reports of patient safety incidents and near misses it received involving absent wristbands or wristbands with incorrect information.