An army of experts have been recruited by NHS England to help prevent care home residents being given too many medicines as part of a package of measures to improve older people’s health and care in the NHS Long Term Plan. Care home residents are prescribed an average of seven medicines a day, with many […]

Pharmacists will take on an expanded role at the heart of local primary care networks across the country, NHS England has confirmed. Following the new GP contract published today, patients across England will be able to get faster expert advice about their prescriptions and other treatment, with clinical pharmacists part of core practice teams. Following […]

Weight worries and pregnancy are among the health concerns that drive thousands of people to seek medical advice on Christmas Day, new data shows. They are among the most popular searches on NHS.uk, the NHS’s official website, on December 25 in recent years. More than people searched information on pregnancy on Christmas Day. With traditional […]

NHS England and the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) are launching a nationwide campaign today (10 September) to help people understand their eligibility for free prescriptions. The ‘Check Before You Tick’ campaign will encourage patients to check whether they are entitled to free prescriptions before claiming them to help reduce the £256 million cost per […]

NHS England has today published guidance to free up to almost £100 million for frontline care each year by curbing prescriptions for ‘over the counter’ medicines such as those for constipation and athletes foot. Curbing routine prescribing for minor, short-term conditions, many of which will cure themselves or cause no long term effect on health, […]

Budding entrepreneurs still have time to apply for a ground-breaking programme that is helping to bring clinical innovations into the NHS to improve patient care. The latest round of NHS England’s Clinical Entrepreneur programme is still open for applications and has now expanded to welcome applications from every type of clinician in the NHS including […]

NHS England has today announced plans to recruit and deploy hundreds of pharmacists into care homes to help reduce overmedication and cut unnecessary hospital stays. Around 180,000 people living in nursing or residential homes will have their prescriptions and medicines reviewed by the new pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Elderly care home residents often have one […]

Most community pharmacies in England are now providing improved asthma and dementia care, NHS England figures show. Thousands of community pharmacists took up incentives to offer new patient services, such as providing asthma checks and undertaking training to become more dementia aware, as part of a programme to improve care. The uptake figures from NHS […]

Nearly 34 million patients will benefit from improved GP services as NHS England boosts the number of surgery-based clinical pharmacists that can offer expert medication and treatment. The NHS England scheme has proved popular with both patients and GP practices and today’s announcement approves funding for over 160 more pharmacists. Including previously approved posts, it, […]

Hundreds of community pharmacists and technicians working across the NHS are being offered the opportunity to develop leadership and management skills on a training programme. The six month programme, has been extended for the first time to the community pharmacy sector. Delivered by the flagship Mary Seacole programme run by NHS Leadership Academy, the six […]