UCA CHARITY / NEWS Festive Fundraising with Age NI
Ulster Chemists’ Association members have been very busy supporting Age NI’s fundraising activities in the run up to Christmas. Pharmacies all over Northern Ireland have been involved in lots of interesting ways:
UCA Secretary Adrienne Clugston
Reindeer Food 300 boxes of reindeer food were delivered to pharmacies across NI, ensuring that Rudolph and his colleagues were well fed on Christmas Eve and raising an approximate £12,000 for the charity! That’s the equivalent of funding 2,400 calls to our Advice Service.
Community engagement O’Neill’s Pharmacy in Coalisland kindly supported our Big Knit fundraiser with a fantastic window display drawing attention to our knitting initiative in partnership with Innocent Smoothies and the fine folk at Harrison
Healthcare, Donegall Pass, Belfast held a Christmas colouring competition for visiting children. Collection boxes have also been filled at your counters with £1,500 raised last year.
Firewalk Challenge A number of brave people walked across hot coals for the charity at a firewalk event in East Belfast in
October which raised £3,000 – this would pay for 100 visits from the Age NI First Connect Service which provides one-to-one support to older people who have reached a crisis point in their lives.
‘It was an unbelievable experience and I would encourage anyone to take up this challenge. It was amazing to find out what you can do when you put
your mind to it,’ says UCA Secretary Adrienne Clugston
Huge thanks! In total, approximately £18,000 has been raised for the charity by UCA members in 2015. Fantastic support and we look forward working together in 2016 to create a world where everyone can love later life. Thank you!
Making informed choices
Following recent claims that patients and the public have been inappropriately influenced by health professionals when making decisions about where they access services, including flu vaccinations and dispensing of prescriptions, the General Medical Council (GMC), General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and the Pharmaceutical Society of NI have published a joint statement on the issue.
Coverage in the health press has related concerns that the introduction of the pharmacy flu vaccination service into the national pharmacy contract in England in September has led to unprofessional behaviour: GPs are alleged to have criticised pharmacists for ‘poaching’ their patients for the vaccine, while pharmacist have
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alleged that GPs have been trying to steer patients away from the pharmacy service
“Doctors and pharmacy professionals must work in partnership with patients, with each other, and as part of a wider multi- disciplinary team to provide high quality care to patients. Care of patients must always be the first priority and access to services such as flu vaccinations should not be affected by commercial interests,” says the statement. The GMC, GPhC and the Pharmaceutical Society NI are clear that pharmacy professionals and doctors must support informed decision making by patients.”
This includes: • Being open and honest at all times about where patients can receive NHS
services, for example where their medicines are dispensed and flu vaccinations are given.
• Not allowing any interests they have, financial or otherwise, to affect the way they treat, refer or commission services for patients.
• Being open and honest about any potential conflicts of interest – this is vital to make sure that the trust and confidence patients have in doctors and pharmacy professionals is maintained.
• Ensuring that the information published when advertising services is factual and does not exploit patients’ vulnerability or lack of medical knowledge.
They conclude, “We have been working with a number of
organisations to make sure that doctors or pharmacy professionals are not inappropriately influencing patients’ choices. Anyone who has a specific concern about this should contact NHS England or their local Health Board in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We work closely with the NHS in each part of the UK and there is a clear process whereby they can refer any concerns to us if they consider our standards have not been met by individual health professionals.
“Evidence of inappropriate payments or attempts to deceive patients would raise questions about the professionalism of doctors and pharmacists, and could result in investigations by the GMC, GPhC and the Pharmaceutical Society NI.”
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