NEWS Minor Ailments
Following the news that PSNC have started negotiations to introduce a minor ailment service in England, Community Pharmacy Scotland Chief Executive, Harry McQuillan, has stated that a national push for the same from the 56 Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) MP’s could be on the horizon following their landslide victory.
The PSNC negotiations could see com- munity pharmacies commissioned to provide advice and treatment for com- mon conditions. PSNC are in talks with NHS Employers over potentially rolling out a new service across England.
“We have long believed that a national minor ailments service would benefit patients, pharmacies and the NHS by giving patients access to advice and treatments for minor conditions without the need for them to visit their GP or another urgent care service,” they said.
“I hope they (SNP) are aware of the national minor ailments service, which they may well see as a benefit,” Mr McQuillan is quoted as saying. He added that if any of the MPs were not already aware of the Scottish scheme - CPS would “make sure they know they’ve had one for nine years”.
He has also stated that Westminster
MPs will understand the difference between pharmacy services across the UK so they could make “informed decisions” about the NHS in England and Wales.
The Minor Ailment service (MAS) aims to support the provision of direct pharmaceutical care within the NHS by community pharmacists. It allows eligible people to register with a community pharmacist of their choice for the consultation and treatment of common self-limiting conditions. The pharmacist advises, treats or refers the persons (or provides a combination of these actions) according to their needs. A person must be registered with a Scottish GP practice and fulfil certain criteria to be eligible for the service. Information on the number of registrations and the treatment op- tions by the NHS Board to which the contractors belong can be found in the reports detailed below.
The most recent figures from ISD Scotland, over 2 million items were dispensed under MAS at a cost of £4.75 million during 2013/14.
MAS accounted for 2.2% of all items dispensed by community pharmacies in Scotland.
Paracetamol was the top item dis- pensed in 2013/14, accounting for 21.1% of all MAS items.
At 31 March 2014, 895,800 people were registered for the service. This equates to 16.9% of the Scotland population.
All community pharmacies in Scotland had patients registered for MAS at 31st March 2014.
The total number of MAS registrations decreased by 0.4% between April 2013 and March 2014, indicating that the number of new registrations was slightly less than the number of lapsed registrations.
SAPG seeking your views on resource pack
The Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group (SAPG) in collaboration with Community Pharmacy Scotland, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) in Scotland and Pharmacy Voice distributed a European Antibiotic Awareness Day resource pack to all community pharmacies in Scotland in November 2014.
A key element within the pack was a tear off pad of patient self-care leaflets, adapted from an RCGP leaflet,
to help patients manage symptoms of self-limiting respiratory infections. The leaflet can be used by pharmacists as a personalised handheld record to document the advice and pharmacy medicine recommended, and as a referral tool for patients about whom they have concerns.
As part of ongoing national work to reduce unnecessary use of antibiotics SAPG is keen to hear from community pharmacists about their experience of
Expanding the Facebook/Twitter resource
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Scotland is embracing digital by launching their new Facebook page. Aimed specifically at Scottish pharmacists and health professionals, this is an easy way to keep up-to-date with relevant news, resources and events. They will be sharing everything from their new videos to their advocacy for pharmacists in Scottish Government.
The team are keen to talk to people from all backgrounds. They want to hear your stories and experiences of pharmacy in Scotland and see this as a great opportunity to have conversations and support the Scottish community.
Like the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Scotland page today. You can also follow them on Twitter at @RPSScotland
using the leaflet and also any ideas for how community pharmacy can further support future antibiotic awareness campaigns.
Community pharmacists across Scotland are being encouraged to complete a short anonymous on-line survey to provide valuable feedback which will inform future campaigns both in Scotland and UK-wide. You can access the survey by visiting www.
rpharms.co.uk
NEWS IN BRIEF
MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH IN ‘UNNOTICED’ SENSES Researchers at the University of Aberdeen have taken a step closer to understanding the nerve endings which report touch and movement to the brain – which could potentially be a powerful new drug target and save many lives in the future.
Sensing movement, stretch and touch play a vital role in our day-to-day life but go largely unnoticed or unappreciated – until they begin to go wrong.
Scientists from the Universities of Aberdeen and Columbia, New York have now discovered that a protein called Whirlin, which is essential to avoid a severe genetic deafness in children called Usher’s Syndrome, is also in the nerve endings which detect movement, and its absence also damages the ability to feel our limb and muscle moving.
The collaboration between Dr Guy Bewick from the University’s Institute of Medical Sciences, and Dr Joriene de Nooij and Prof Tom Jessell from a world leading neuroscience lab at Columbia University, New York, hope their findings could eventually lead to a breakthrough in developing treatments for not only Usher’s Syndrome but even high blood pressure (hypertension), the world’s leading cause of heart disease, kidney failure and stroke.
Dr Bewick said, “While we still don’t know what molecules first detect movement, our recent discovery gives science an important new opportunity to identify these molecules.
“As we already know, when whirlin is defective it causes the devastating illness Usher’s Syndrome. Our new findings show that whirlin is also in nerve endings that detect movement but as it is actually placed totally within the nerve endings it cannot be the first link in the chain of detecting movement. But, crucially it has lots of ‘sticky’ regions on it which stick all the molecules involved together as an efficient unit. This is why movement detection is much worse without it.
“Therefore, we now plan to use undamaged whirlin as a ‘sticky’ hook to fish out all the molecules in this unit. This should lead to the discovery of the vital, and so far mysterious, movement detector molecule.”
SCOTTISH PHARMACIST - 25
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56