Heatwave Plan for England 2012 published

The latest DoH heatwave plan has been published.

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Action plan for respiratory disease treatment published

A new action plan for treatment of respiratory problems is set out in guidance published today for the NHS. … more

Community Pharmacy Health Promotion Campaign Training - Skin Cancer Awareness

Devon and Torbay have some of the highest rates of skin cancer in the country, and pharmacies are ideally placed to raise awareness and encourage early diagnosis.  … more

Coughing could be a sign of lung cancer

The national campaign aimed at earlier diagnosis of lung cancer launches today and will run until 30th June 2012. … more

Devon LPC newsletter

The latest newsletter has been published. Along with the newsletter there is Cluster News from the PCTs, and a letter from David Bearman, Chair of the LPC. … more

Emergency Contraception

Following updated guidance on emergency contraception by the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH), the NPA has produced a factsheet to support pharmacists in implementing the recommendations, which contains the following recommendations: … more

Maintaining services in the event of a fuel crisis

There has been talk nationally regarding the implications of a potential strike by fuel tanker drivers. Community pharmacies are advised that this may impact on their business continuity and should include steps to address this in their business continuity plans.  … more

Drug Tariff Simplification Changes

As part of PSNC's ongoing negotiations with the Department of Health (DH), a number of measures have been agreed with the aim of simplifying Drug Tariff reimbursement arrangements in several areas. Some of the changes are due to come into affect as of April 2012. … more

Pharmacies opening over Easter, May Bank Holiday and Jubilee 2012

The lists of pharmacies opening over the bank holidays can be found on the link below. … more

PSNC Dispensing Resources 2012

Pharmacy contractor should have by now received a copy of Dispensing Resources 2012 (contact your Head Office about delivery if you are a Boots or LLoyds Pharmacy). … more

Plymouth Care Home Steering Group Website

The Care Homes Management Steering Group now has a dedicated webpage on the Plymouth City Council website. … more

Pharmabase

The second edition of Pharmabase update - a new regular publication intended to keep LPCs, pharmacy contractors and their staff up to date with the development of Pharmabase - has been published. … more

Campaign Resource Centre - Department of Health

The link below provides easy access to the latest public health campaigns. … more

Free health and cancer information materials for pharmacists and patients

Cancer Research UK has asked us to highlight the availability of its free leaflets.

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Medicines Use Reviews - Guidance

New guidance has recently been published on the medicine use review service that includes information on the conditions of service, how to deliver it successfully, monitoring arrangements, an updated MUR service specification, as well as a list of suggested questions which pharmacists can use during the MUR consultation with patients. … more

Transfer from Hospital to Community Setting - Guidance on NMS and targeted MURs

The NHS Employers organisation, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society have published the following documents showing how the New Medicine Service and post-discharge medicines use reviews can be used to provide a seamless care pathway for patients who transfer from hospital to the community setting. … more

Diamond Jubilee Bank Holiday

PSNC have issued information about the changes to the May bank holiday brought about by the celebrations for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The end of May bank holiday has been moved to Monday 4th June 2012 and the extra bank holiday will be on Tuesday 5th June 2012. … more

2011 Atlas of Variation Published

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Contact details for Devon PCTs

The up to date contact details for the cluster of PCTs in Devon have been received. … more

Pharmacy Leaflet

The DOH have produced an informative leaflet about the services community pharmacy provide … more

New Specials Tariff

The NPA has developed a number of resources to support members with the introduction of the new Specials Tariff.

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RPS produces quick reference guide on how to use the BNF

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has produced a quick reference guide that aims to provide a roadmap for pharmacists on where to look in the BNF for information.  … more

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society launches "ipharmacist.me"

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has launched "ipharmacist.me", an online resource for pharmacy based health campaigns, providing information about RPS health campaigns, medicines, and pharmacy. … more

LPC Briefing Paper - Branded To Generic Switches, A Saving At A Cost

Devon LPC, in association with the South West LPCs have produced a briefing paper on the effect of branded generic switches in community pharmacy. … more

Sexual and Mental Health resources available

Two new public health resources on mental health and sexual health have been announced by Mike O'Brien, the Minister of Health. … more

Sex, Drugs and Pharmacy's Role

The Chemist and Druggist has published some top tips for pharmacists offering sexual health services to their customers.  … more

Want to stop smoking?

Ask your pharmacist - You are four times more likely to quit using a NHS Stop Smoking Service … more

• New Medicine Service - Complete our On Line Survey Now!

Now that three months have passed since it was launched, we would like to gauge how NMS is settling in across Devon. If you could spare us one minute of your time before the end of January, the link below will take you to a very short online survey of 4 questions. The survey is completely anonymous, and will help us to evaluate NMS so far. We will post some feedback on the website in early February. Thanks for your time!