Blog
How the UK pharmacy and healthcare system compares with other European Countries
I want to thank you again for your successful presentation made in London to our Pharma Group Europe conference. Your detailed explanations for all the delegates were extremely interesting and enlightening. Our international participants from Germany, Austria,...
Wholesale dealers licenses – EU Consultation
As I have mentioned before the EU are currently consulting on updating the Good Distribution Practice guidelines across Europe. Having attended an MHRA training day in London recently, it is evident to me that there are a several areas where Wholesale Dealers and...
100 Hour pharmacies and the future
So we now have a consultation paper from the DOH which, if enacted as written sometime after Jan 25th 2012, will sound the end of further 100 hour pharmacies being granted permission to open. It is not yet clear for how long 100 hour applications will continue to be...
Improving patient adherence
We have all heard the statistics many times concerning the high proportion of patients who for whatever reason do not follow a prescribed treatment regime, even though they have taken time out to attend an appointment with their GP, and clearly most patients who visit...
Opening a new pharmacy – have you got planning consent?
** 2014 UPDATE ** Reading through the old blog material we have posted and I noticed the following article from the previous owner of the business about planning consent. Despite the original blog being dated in 2011 the issues remains as pertinent today as it was...
Improving patient adherence
With the introduction of the New Medicines Service (NMS) last week, the Government have demonstrated their belief that it is worth paying pharmacists to personally interact on a structured basis with patients who are newly prescribed medicines in 4 defined clinical...
Using the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS)
Now that the Government have confirmed that the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) is to survive the other cuts to be made to the NHS programme for IT, it is definitely time for pharmacists to get ready for and start using EPS. If you are not fully ready for EPS...
Pharmacy automation
Between 2000 and 2009, the number of items dispensed to patients in community pharmacies increased by almost 70%, and the average number of items dispensed per head of population increased from 11.2 to 17.8. These figures suggest that the average pharmacy is storing...
EU commission Consultation on GDP – Counterfeits
The reasons given for the present consultation on GDP across Europe are: that it has been a long time since European GDP had been reviewed and that the situation regarding Counterfeit medicines needs to be reviewed. Reason 1. Ok, it has been a long time and a review...
EU Commission consultation on GDP
I have written before about the implications upon RPs from the current EU consultation exercise on GDP. There are other implications of the consultation, if it is implemented, concerning for example the Quality Systems operated by Wholesale dealers. At present in the...
New Medicines Service-making the most of it
In addition to the very welcome opportunity to use our professional knowledge to patient benefit, the NMS is undoubtedly an opportunity for pharmacists to earn some worthwhile additional income. Firstly, any pharmacy that implements the service, regardless of their...
Pharmacy in Europe
We can all learn from the differences between the way that pharmacy is practised in other countries. But not that many pharmacists get the opportunity to work abroad or to study how their profession earns a living elsewhere. Early in my career I worked in a Germany...