PLEASE ATTEND THE FORTHCOMING SWINE FLU BRIEFING ON WEDNESDAY, JULY 8TH. CONTACT HELEN WRAGG FOR DETAILS. (0114 305 1137)

There are a number of resources to help community pharmacists deal with the current Influenza Type A H1N1 (Swine Flu) outbreak available on the Useful Links page of this website.

Pharmacists should be aware of tht National Patient Safety Agency Rapid Response Report issued in July 2008 to reduce the high level of patient harm incidents relating to Opioid medicines. There are two key responsibilities. Firstly, those involved in dispensing opiates should be familiar with the products characteristics. This is achievable considering the essential knowledge of the pharmacist and the information resources available within the dispensary. The second strand concerns the suitability of the dose and route. In practice this is difficult to achieve without access to patient records but where the pharmacist does have knowledge of the patient's medication history then any prescribed dose should be assessed as per the guidance.  Pharmacists should update the CD Standard Operating Procedures to reflect this.

Follow this link to a suitable dispensing flowchart .

Change4Life is a society-wide movement that aims to prevent people from becoming overweight by encouraging them to eat better and move more.  The Change4Life advertising campaign began on Saturday 3 January – on TV, in the press, on billboards and online. In the initial stage, young families are being targeted. This is an opportunity for pharmacy to be involved. A range of posters and various materials are available from the Department of Health, 0300 123 1002, or check out the website for details.

Sheffield pharmacist and LPC member, with a developing career in broadcasting, Ravi Mohan, will be talking about this on Radio Sheffield on Thursday, January 15^th.

This new enhanced service, known as MIES for short, is being commissioned to improve treatment outcomes for certain mental health patients. Initially being piloted for 6 months in the west of Sheffield the MIES scheme requires that the client enter into an agreement whereby any failure to collect their medication will be shared with those involved in their treatment. Under the scheme the client identifies the pharmacy who are to order and dispense the prescription. The pharmacy can then alert the Community Mental Health Team in the event of a non collection.

Under the Service Level Agreement the pharmacy must have robust systems in place which include a suitable SOP. A template SOP can be downloaded here and modified to suit the particular pharmacy.