Partnership Agreements – keep them relevant and up-to-date

by Jackie (née Heneghan) Peck | Jun 12, 2014 | Blog, Community Pharmacy, Pharmacy Suppliers, Regulation

If you’re a business owner and part of a partnership it is imperative that you have an up-to-date and relevant partnership agreement.  And no I’m not talking about the template your lawyer pulled out all those years ago or the copy gathering dust in the...

CQC and care by surveillance?

by Jackie (née Heneghan) Peck | Jun 12, 2014 | Behind the scenes, Blog, Community Pharmacy, Regulation

In the office here, we followed a lively LinkedIn discussion talking about the use of cameras in a care home setting and whether such technology could be useful, is invasive or is wanted by the patient and their family. Many good points were raised including: 1. Well...

Buying a Pharmacy

by Jackie (née Heneghan) Peck | Jun 12, 2014 | Behind the scenes, Blog, Community Pharmacy, Pharmacy Brands

What’s on the market now? What can you afford? And what’s a good investment? I often talk to pharmacists wanting to buy their own pharmacy and enter the market as a business owner.  I want be my own boss, I’m sick of being employed and I’m...

NHS Litigation Authority

by Jackie (née Heneghan) Peck | Jun 12, 2014 | Behind the scenes, Blog, Community Pharmacy, Pharmacy Brands, Regulation

The NHS Litigation Authority have recently published statistics on their website relating to appeals for pharmacy contracts. The number of appeals since the new market entry regulations has decreased however this may be a market anomaly as applicants get their heads...

Technology in Health and the emergence of Apple

by Jackie (née Heneghan) Peck | Jun 12, 2014 | Behind the scenes, Blog, Regulation

It was announced earlier this month that Apple were launching their own healthcare and fitness app called HealthKit.  The app is part of iOS8 and has the potential to communicate patient health data to hospitals and clinicians. The idea behind all of this is...

Online Pharmacy – are patients better with a ‘face to face’?

by Jackie (née Heneghan) Peck | Jun 12, 2014 | Blog, Community Pharmacy, Pharmacy Brands, Regulation

Recent coverage in the Australian community pharmacy press has centred around the benefit and/or potential harm of prescribing and dispensing medicines without a face-to-face consultation.  The discussion raised asked the question whether an online questionnaire is...

Recent MHRA Alerts

by Jackie (née Heneghan) Peck | May 20, 2014 | Blog, Community Pharmacy, Pharmacy Brands, Pharmacy Suppliers

So much for all the wonders and claims of slimming tablets … After investigation, the MHRA has recently issued alerts about a number of products found to have prescription only drug ingredients in them.  All the alerts were raised by the Hong Kong Department of...

Export of medicines in short supply………

by Jackie (née Heneghan) Peck | May 12, 2014 | Blog, Community Pharmacy, Pharmacy Brands, Pharmacy Suppliers

The PSNC is no longer maintaining a list as shortages have become part of every day life in pharmacy now. This posed a question by one of my clients: “Does this mean we can now export anything?” No I said you must not export drugs in short supply and I refereed him to...

RP & GDP Training for WDA(H)

by Jackie (née Heneghan) Peck | May 12, 2014 | Behind the scenes, Blog, Community Pharmacy, Pharmacy Brands, Pharmacy Suppliers, Regulation

RP – Responsible Person relating to MHRA GDP – Good Distribution Practice – the guidelines by which medicine wholesalers must adhere to WDA(H) – Wholesale Distribution Authorisation for Human Use – previously Wholesale Dealer’s...

Out of Specification (OOS) Test Results

by Jackie (née Heneghan) Peck | May 12, 2014 | Behind the scenes, Blog, Pharmacy Suppliers, Regulation

What are Out of Specification results (OOS)?  It seems to be clear enough in the name but I thought I better check it out. One definition is: All test results which fall outside the specifications or acceptance criteria established in drug applications, drug master...