Hospital Pharmacist
2006;13:3-4
January 2006

3 NHS modernisation hindered by recruitment difficulties Service modernisation, the key objective of the Agenda for Change process, is being seriously affected by an inability to obtain sufficient trained and competent staff, according to a paper submitted by the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists to the Nurses and Other Health Professions Pay Review Body recently more

3 Pharmacists move to primary care Many pharmacists working in primary care were previously employed in hospital pharmacy, research has revealed more

3 Drug price reductions save £700m Recently negotiated branded and generic drug price reductions have delivered NHS savings of almost £700m to date, rising to over £950m for the past year, according to the Department of Health's Chief Executive's report to the NHS, published last month more

4 Ageing population to increase NHS costs Ageing patients will impose considerable workload and financial pressures on the NHS, according to a recent article in the BMJ more

4 Patients now offered a choice of NHS hospitals From this month patients in England will be able to choose where and when they are treated, when they are referred to secondary care more

3 NEWS IN BRIEF

Draft guidelines on hospital acquired pneumonia have been issued for consultation by the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. The guidelines can be accessed at www.bsac.org.uk. Following the consultation period the report will be submitted for publication in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. The consultation closes on 23 January.

PowerPoint presentations from the 2005 Hospital Pharmacist conference: "Pharmacy at the interface — bridging the gap", are now available online

The NHS Expert Patients Programme should be accessible to a wider range of people, according to the British Medical Association. In a recent discussion paper the BMA recognises the benefits of training patients to manage their own long-term conditions, but says that the NHS must ensure that the needs of socially excluded people and ethnic minorities are met.

The National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence has published a tool to help organisations implement its guidance. The tool consists of three sections: one for chief executives and directors, one for those who implement guidance as part of their daily practice, and one for those involved in commissioning. It can be accessed at www.nice.org.uk