NPA News

A number of changes to the Drug Tariff reimbursement processes for England and Wales have been announced for 2012. The first phase of this change, phase one, was implemented in April 2012, with phase two being implemented from July 2012.

Community pharmacists frequently intervene to prevent harm to patients or provide advice which is beneficial to their health or wellbeing. This valuable element of the pharmacy service is rarely recorded and is often not fully appreciated by patients, commissioners or Government. This sometimes manifests in patients judging pharmacies purely on the basis of how quickly they can dispense a medicine, rather than their ability to optimise medicines use and support health and wellness. An audit has been designed to capture this information which will help individual pharmacies to complete their contractual requirement to undertake a practice audit, whilst also generating national data on pharmacy’s “hidden value”.

MEDICAL DEVICE ALERT - Action

Class 3 Medicines Recall – Action within 5 days – Pharmacy level recall

The National Pharmacy Association’s response to the Scottish Government Review of NHS Pharmaceutical Care of Patients in the Community encouraged NHS Scotland to make the most of community pharmacy’s central place in delivering pharmaceutical care, by developing the current contract to maximise the contribution of the pharmacy network across Scotland.

Remuneration arrangements for Scottish community pharmacy services were announced at the end of April. The arrangements, detailed in the Scottish Drug Tariff, apply from 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013

The National Pharmacy Association is distributing 2,000 support packs to pharmacy teams to help them during the London 2012 Olympics.

Latest updates on NCSO (No cheaper stock obtainable) concessions for 2012.

On Tuesday 15th May, the APPG published a report following their enquiry into medicine shortages. The NPA’s press office arranged the following interviews:

To help NPA members continue to deliver high quality healthcare, the NPA has produced these olympic games resources for members with the assistance of NHS London and Reckitt Benckiser.

The guide has been produced to help you as a patient, a carer or a member of a patient
organisation understand the changes that are taking place in community pharmacy.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, Pharmacy Voice and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society have responded to the All Party Pharmacy Group’s report into medicines shortages.

Out of pocket expenses for a product that has been sourced from a manufacturer with a specials licence, or a manufacturer with an importers licence, can be claimed by endorsing the prescription with ’SP‘.

The National Pharmacy Association has launched a free service to help NPA members to advertise job vacancies for pharmacy students.

Guidance to help members comply with new CG requirements is now available. Three existing Information Department documents have been updated and five new documents launched

If you’re looking for a fitness challenge, or you or a loved one has been affected by sight loss, please consider participating in the ‘Carrots NightWalk – See London in the Dark 2012’ on 21 September. This fun night-time sponsored walk is Fight for Sight’s flagship fundraising event, helping to raise thousands of pounds for research to prevent sight loss and treat eye disease.

This document provides information on latest medicine shortages.

Two booklets for patients with diabetes have been produced by the Insulin Dependent Diabetes Trust (IDDT); one booklet aims to improve patient understanding of diabetes and the other provides advice about everyday eating

Latest updates on Items on short supply.

Teva UK is recalling all in date stock of the Levothyroxine tablets 100mcg. The recall follows the suspension of the marketing authorisation (MA) in February 2012