NEWS


Fife launch Managing Sharps Safely


A new Prescribed Sharps Disposal Service is launching across Fife in Feb- ruary 2015. Prescribed sharps are used by anyone who uses a needle to inject prescribed medication or who self test e.g. for blood sugar levels. It will enable safe and easy access to special plastic sharps containers for patients to store the used sharps in their home before returning them to a pharmacy for safe disposal.


It is important for sharps to be disposed of safely, as inappropriate disposal creates a risk of accidental needle-stick injuries to pharmacy staff, waste management staff and to patients and members of the public.


The new service aims to: • Provide patients with a safe and


CPS Golf Day The third Community Pharmacy


Scotland Charity Golf Day will take place at Mar Hall Golf and Spa Resort on Friday 29th May 2015. The chosen charity for this year's event is CCLASP (Children with Cancer & Leukaemia, Advice & Support for Parents).


The competition itself will be held under Stableford rules and the cost to enter is £400 per team of four. The package will include: • Bacon roll & Tea/Coffee on arrival


• Round of golf which includes sponsored holes and competitions


• Refreshments after nine holes


• Finger buffet before or after playing (dependent on tee off times)


• Three course dinner in the evening


• This also gives attendees the opportunity to meet old and new friends and business partners.


Those who wish to enter a four-ball team can register online now. Any questions about the event should be directed to Pat Keanie by email mailto:


pat.keanie@cpscotland.org.uk or phone on 0131 467 7766.


convenient route for the disposal of sharps.


• Reduce the amount of sharps stored in patients’ homes, by providing a convenient route for disposal, thus reducing the risk of accidental needle-stick injuries.


• Reduce the environmental damage caused by inappropriate disposal methods for sharps.


Posters and information leaflets for staff and patients detailing the service will be distributed across local Pharma- cies, clinics, hospitals and GP Surgeries in NHS Fife.


Key messages for the campaign include:


If you use a needle to inject prescribed


medication or for testing your blood, it is your responsibility to dispose of the needles safely. Needles should only be disposed of in a Sharps bin which is specially designed for this purpose.


You should use your Sharps bin to dispose of:


• Used syringes and devices which have a needle attached


• Used finger pricking devices • Used insulin pump sharps • Full needle clipping devices


All 85 local pharmacies in Fife are tak- ing part in this new service. Patients can take the full (sealed) bin to their local pharmacy and exchange it for a new one.


Universities team up in dementia research


Scottish scientists are investigating the causes of dementia will study how lifestyle factors impact on memory and brain degeneration as seen in dementia.


Four universities - Aberdeen, Edinburgh, St Andrews and Dundee -are to join forces to study how diet, exercise and other factors affect brain function and cognitive performance, blood flow and degeneration of brain tissue, and whether such changes are reversible.


The project – which has been funded by the Alzheimer’s Society – will establish a new doctoral training centre (DTC) for PhD students across the partner universities.


The centre is one of eight newly funded by Alzheimer’s Society around the UK that will support 55 PhDs and Clinical Fellows to conduct cutting edge research into all types of dementia. This is the single biggest funding commitment that has been made to support dementia early- career dementia researchers in the UK.


The new research programme will investigate various aspects of the relationship between healthy vs unhealthy diets and the corresponding changes within the brain that cause dementia.


The team hopes that by better understanding the interaction between lifestyle choices and brain function, they can uncover new targets for drug therapies.


Prof Bettina Platt, who oversees the research at the University of Aberdeen, says, "We are hopeful that our Scotland-wide training centre can provide long overdue evidence for or against the contribution of (un-)healthy diets, as well as support the next generation of dementia researchers. It is commonly assumed that life style and diet are to blame for the ever increasing number of dementia sufferers, however, hard evidence for the underlying mechanisms and ways to prevent this debilitating condition is not available."


NEWS IN BRIEF


SMC RECOMMEND ABRAXANE® IN COMBINATION WITH GEMCITABINE


Abraxane® (paclitaxel formulated as albumin bound nanoparticles; nab-paclitaxel), in combination with gemcitabine, has been recommended for use within NHS Scotland by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) for the treatment of metastatic adenocarcinoma of the pancreas.


The decision follows the recent NHS England announcement to defer their review of ABRAXANE® for metastatic pancreatic cancer, allowing the treatment to remain on the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) until a final decision is made.


In Scotland an estimated 770 new patients are diagnosed and approximately 740 die from the disease each year, representing 4.7% of cancer deaths in Scotland each year.


Professor Jeff Evans, Professor of the Translational Cancer Research, University of Glasgow, said, “I welcome the Scottish Medicine Consortium decision to approve the prescribing of ABRAXANE ® in Scotland. Pancreatic cancer has extremely low survival rates as the majority of patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage. ABRAXANE ® has shown that it is able to increase survival for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer and now sufferers of the disease in Scotland will be able to use this treatment.”


The SMC decision is based on results from the MPACT (Metastatic Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Clinical Trial) study, published in the October 2013 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, which demonstrated an increase in median overall survival of 1.8 months when compared to gemcitabine alone [(8.5 months vs. 6.7 months respectively) (HR 0.72; 95% CI 0.62 to 0.83 P<0.001)]. Updated results from post-hoc analysis of the MPACT trial based on an extended data cut-off (8 months) at the time the trial was closed demonstrated an increase in the median overall survival benefit of 2.1 months when compared to gemcitabine alone [(8.7 months vs. 6.6 months respectively) (HR 0.72,95% CI = 0.62 to 0.83, P<.001)].


SCOTTISH PHARMACIST - 23


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