Happy New Year. We hope you all had a wonderful time. We hope you managed to provide your feedback to the Transitional Committee. We have a lot of contents planned for our users this year and we will update you as we get them.

First thing first!

If you are planning to work as a locum pharmacist tomorrow, you cannot afford to forget these essentials! We are creating a video (less than 5 minutes) of essentials that you will need when going to fulfil a community pharmacy locum appointment. Watch this space!.

Signposting is now an essential part of community pharmacy contract (NHS Regulation 2005).

(ref: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2005/20050641.htm#18a )

Signposting

18. A pharmacist shall, to the extent paragraph 19 requires and in the manner set out in that paragraph, provide information to users of its pharmacy about other health and social care providers and support organisations.

Service outline in respect of signposting
19. – (1) Where it appears to a pharmacist or his staff, having regard to the need to minimise inappropriate use of health and social care services and of support services, that a person using his pharmacy –

(a) requires advice, treatment or support that the pharmacist cannot provide; but

(b) another provider, of which the pharmacist is aware, of health or social care services or of support services is likely to be able to provide that advice, treatment or support,

the pharmacist shall provide contact details of that provider to that person and shall, in appropriate cases, refer that person to that provider.

(2) Where appropriate, a referral under paragraph (1) may be made by means of a written referral note.

(3) The pharmacist shall, in appropriate cases, keep and maintain a record of any information given or referral made under paragraph (1) and that record shall be in a form that facilitates –

(a) auditing of the provision of pharmaceutical services by the pharmacist; and

(b) follow-up care for the person who has been given the information or in respect of whom the referral has been made.

We now have the Southampton PCT Signposting document on our website for our members’ perusal. Whilst this is an essential documents in all pharmacies, it is important that we give our locum pharmacist members opportunity to familiarise themselves with the document prior to a locum appointment. That way they can efficiently discharge their signposting duties. The document can be view by our members: Click here (Many thanks to Southampton PCT). We plan to make the other PCTs signposting documents available as well.

—end—

Medicines Reconciliation

This is the new buzz word for making sure that all the information about a patient’s medication are accurate, reliable and available when patients are transferred from one healthcare setting to another. This will no doubt decrease the incidence of drug related errors. The Hampshire PCT has just circulated a briefing document on this issue and is available for our members to view here.

As pharmacists delivering MUR, we can make a significant contribution to reducing the incidence of Medicines Reconciliation problems by:

  • Identifying patients going in for planned hospital appointment and advising them to take along all their medication including any over the counter medicines (Patient Education).
  • We must also be willing (provided we can verify the identity ) to share information with our colleagues in the hospital relating to the medication being taken by a patient who has just had an unplanned admission

By working together, we can begin to break down the barriers between different practice sectors.

There is an important Conference entitled ‘Breaking down the barriers – a fresh look at the interface between the pharmacy sectors’ on Thursday the 5th of February 2009 which might shed more light on the interface issues.

Annual Conference and Exhibition

Annual Conference and Exhibition

download details: www.pjonline.com/fileproxy/3862

We will be reporting back from the conference. Watch this space!

–end–


Hampshire PCT Medicines Management Update

We have the latest edition of the Medicines Management Update for your perusal. Click here to view. The key issues on this are:

  • The Antibiotic guideline for the Community. Pharmacists working across Hampshire PCT should find this useful. As soon as we have our hand on it, we will attempt to make it available to our members.
  • Hampshire PCT is going to give all community pharmacies access to the Travax website: hurray! Another tool in our armoury for delivering for our customers – we like it
  • About Travax
    TRAVAX is an interactive online database providing up to the minute travel health information for health care professionals. TRAVAX is maintained and continually updated by the Travel Health Division of Health Protection Scotland (HPS). It is provided as a NHS resource for health care professionals who advise patients about avoiding illness when travelling abroad.

    Access to Travax: http://www.travax.nhs.uk/

–end–

We will continue to work to bring valuable information and support to our members. If you are not yet a member or haven’t yet felt an interest in joining, we hope you will read more about the project here. We will be waiting to welcome you into our fold.

Thanks for now and have a great week.

Administrator
bookapharmacist.com