Well introduces innovative pharmacist scheduling tool
Well has announced that it has started implementing a new pharmacist scheduling tool across its stores. The tool – the Quinyx workforce management system – is an app-based solution that will give pharmacists a simpler way to manage their shifts and cover. Quinyx allows pharmacists to share their availability for shifts and enables the company to send out notices of available shifts where cover is required.
‘Making sure that we have the right pharmacist cover in all our pharmacies can be a huge logistical effort when you factor in the impact of short notice sickness and holidays, says Nigel Swift, Operations Director at Well. ‘That’s why we’ve invested in a reliable, effective and flexible scheduling tool to help us. Quinyx gives us seamless integration with other systems, such as automatically checking the GPhC register. It also means that in the future we’ll be better able to support our patients and customers by matching pharmacist skills and accreditations to local pharmacy needs to offer the best community pharmacy experience.’
Quinyx will be rolled out across all of Well’s UK stores by the end of October.
Contact tracing app development
The Scottish Government has announced that a contact tracing app to support NHS Scotland’s Test and Protect system is now in development. The proximity tracing app, which is anticipated to be available in the autumn via Apple and Google app stores, will focus on using Bluetooth technology to anonymously alert users if they have been in close contact with another user who has tested positive for coronavirus. The app will complement existing person-to- person contact tracing, which will remain the main component of NHS Scotland’s Test and Protect system. If an individual tests positive for COVID-19 they will be sent a unique code to their mobile. If they give permission, the data will then be sent to a server so close contacts also using the app can be traced.
4 - SCOTTISH PHARMACIST
NHS TAYSIDE ‘FIRST REGION IN THE WORLD TO ELIMINATE HEPATITIS C’
Professor John Dillon (centre) with the successful collaborative team including Andrew Radley, Consultant in Public Health Pharmacy (immediate right of Professor Dillon.
NHS Tayside has become the first region in the world to effectively eliminate hepatitis C with its pioneering approach to treating the disease.
In late 2019, NHS Tayside had diagnosed 90 per cent of patients and treated 80 per cent of eligible infected cases, thereby meeting the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) 2030 target for reducing prevalence of hepatitis C eleven years early.
The project was a successful collaboration between University of Dundee, NHS Tayside’s community nursing and pharmacy teams, lab
teams, Public Health’s Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Managed Care Network and third sector partners including the Cairn Centre.
The NHS Tayside project, which was developed in collaboration with the University of Dundee, targets people who inject drugs without waiting until they go on to recovery programmes or stop using drugs. This prevents them passing the virus on to others and helps stop the spread of HCV among the population.
‘Our evaluation,’ said Andrew Radley, Consultant in Public Health Pharmacy at NHS Tayside, ‘has demonstrated that the pharmacy pathway
recruited around twice as many people to take a test compared to other services, and that these patients were approximately twice as likely to achieve a cure for their hep C infection than from other standard routes of care.
‘Our evaluation also showed that the long-term trusting relationship with pharmacy staff, the local situation of the pharmacy within a community and the ongoing reason to attend the pharmacy were key factors in this success. Patients did not need to find the money for bus fares or navigate their way around an unfamiliar hospital.’
COMMONLY USED PAIN TREATMENTS CAN DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD SAYS NICE
A number of commonly used drug treatments for chronic primary pain have little or no evidence that they work and shouldn’t be prescribed, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has said in its recent draft clinical guideline, which was published on the assessment and management of chronic pain in people over sixteen years of age. Instead, the draft guideline, which is now open to public consultation until 14 September 2020, says that people with a type of chronic pain called chronic primary pain should be offered supervised group exercise
programmes, some types of psychological therapy, or acupuncture.
The draft guideline recommends that some antidepressants can be considered for people with chronic primary pain. It says, however, that paracetamol, non-steroidal anti- inflammatory drugs (these include aspirin and ibuprofen), benzodiazepines or opioids should not be offered. This is because, while there was little or no evidence that they made any difference to people’s quality of life, pain or psychological distress, there was
evidence that they can cause harm, including possible addiction.
The draft guideline also says that antiepileptic drugs including gabapentinoids, local anaesthetics, ketamine, corticosteroids and antipsychotics should not be offered to people to manage chronic primary pain. Again, this was because there was little or no evidence that these treatments work but could have possible harms. Acupuncture is recommended as an option for some people with chronic primary pain, provided it is delivered within certain, clearly-defined parameters.
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