Pharmacists in Smoking Cessation

INTERNATIONAL NEWS Roisin Molloy,
Membership & Secretary General’s Office Manager, IPU
International
Pharmacy News
UK
Clinical
Services
Review sets
direction for
community
pharmacy
NHS England has published
the report of the Community
Pharmacy Clinical Services
Review that has been carried
out by Richard Murray,
Director of Policy at the
Kings Fund. The review
was informed by a steering
group but was carried out
independently.
The report concludes that
there needs to be “renewed
efforts to make the most of
the existing clinical services
that community pharmacy can
provide and to do so at pace”.
It sets out how the skills of
community pharmacists and
their teams can be used to
help people to manage longterm
conditions and to embed
medicines optimisation within
care pathways. This may
require national action through
the Community Pharmacy
Contractual Framework, as
well as local progress on
integrating pharmacies into
evolving models of care, the
report states.
The report sets out a
number of recommendations
for the future development of
community pharmacy services
including:
n Incentivising use
of electronic repeat
dispensing so that this
becomes the default for
repeat prescribing;
n A redesign of MURs to
develop them into full
clinical reviews including
ongoing monitoring and
follow-up of patients,
consideration of
prescription duration,
and utilising independent
prescribing as part of the
care pathway;
n Consideration of making
smoking cessation
services an element of
the national contractual
framework;
n Use of the Vanguard
programmes to develop
the evidence base for
community pharmacists
including integrating
community pharmacists
into long-term condition
management pathways,
involving them in casefinding
programmes
and using new ways of
contracting that mitigate
any perceived conflicts
of interest;
n Support from NHS
England and national
partners to help STP
leads to integrate
community pharmacy
into their plans and
local commissioners to
contract for services; and
n Joint work by PSNC, the
Royal Pharmaceutical
Society and national
GP representatives to
explore what practical
steps can be taken to
unravel professional
boundary issues and
ensure closer working
between community
pharmacists and GPs.
The report also called for
NHS England to set out how
it intends to deliver on its
commitment to ensure that
minor ailments services are
commissioned across England
by April 2018. It stressed
the need for community
pharmacists and their teams
to share information with
clinical records held by other
healthcare professionals.
The report recommends that
a formal group be established,
including representatives
of community pharmacy, to
have oversight of progress and
recommend further action
where needed.
The independent review
was commissioned by the
Chief Pharmaceutical Officer
of NHS England earlier this
year. NHS England has set
out its intention to use the
recommendations of the
review to inform its approach
to the commissioning of
NHS community pharmacy
services. A rapid review of
the evidence for community
pharmacy services, carried out
by Professor David Wright, was
published alongside the report.
PSNC Chief Executive Sue
Sharpe said, “This review
includes some positive
and welcome proposals for
developing the community
pharmacy service. We are
ready and keen to work to
implement these as soon as
possible. The events of the
last year have badly dented
the confidence of pharmacy
contractors but energy in
moving forwards will do a lot
to restore it.”
Source: http://psnc.org.uk/
Romania
Aims
to slow
parallel trade of
medicines when
supplies run low
The Romanian Health Ministry
published a draft order
designed to curb the so-called
parallel trade of medicines.
The order would require that
when supplies of medicines
run low nationwide for seven
days, the government must
track them and their export
would be banned. The health
ministry wants to ensure
that drugs are not taken
out of Romania, where they
are priced low, to be sold for
higher prices in richer EU
countries at the expense of
Romanian patients.
Romania, Greece and
Slovakia have complained
about medicine shortages
due to the legal practice of
parallel export. Drugs and
other items can cross borders
in the EU because of the
principle of free movement of
goods. National governments
cannot completely ban the
practice but can restrict it if it
creates shortages of medicines
locally and poses a risk to
patients. EU Health and Food
Safety Commissioner Vytenis
Andriukaitis stressed this
during a visit to Romania in
September 2015.
Romania’s proposal would
take effect after the National
Medicines and Medical
Devices Agency confirms that
the reason for the evaporating
supply isn’t related to
some kind of extreme
situation, such as quality or
safety issues or temporary
production issues. The drugs
would be taken off the list
if stocks recover nationally
and supplies remain stable
for at least 14 consecutive
days, according to the draft
order. Romania’s incoming
government could dial back on
the order before it takes effect,
which would most likely be in
March.
Source: PGEU Monthly Newsletter
December 2016.
60
IPUREVIEW FEBRUARY 2017