This site is intended for Healthcare Professionals only

Pharmacy Show 2017: the full report

In-depth bookmark icon off

Pharmacy Show 2017: the full report

This year’s Pharmacy Show saw high profile speakers from all corners of UK community pharmacy. Here's a full round up

E-cigs boost quit attempts and rates 

Offering electronic cigarettes makes stop smoking schemes more attractive to a wider range and higher number of customers, and also improves quit rates, according to the results of a project across 10 pharmacies.

Vivek Shah, owner of Shah Pharmacy in Birmingham’s Sparkhill area, said at this year’s Pharmacy Show that as part of a pilot scheme he had recruited more patients using e-cigs than he had with nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) or varenicline and attained a 74 per cent four-week quit rate. Part of the success stemmed from the fact that vaping is socially acceptable, particularly among younger people,
in a way that NRT and quit medication are not, he stated.

Kathy Lee from Birmingham City Council, which commissioned the project, said that while some people still have concerns about electronic cigarettes, the fact that the devices have recently been endorsed by Public Health England as a quit aid provided reassurance that they were a safer alternative to smoking. Data from the initiative was being analysed by Warwick University, she added, saying that the resulting report would dictate future commissioning.

GPhC to go public with reports

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has announced plans to publish its inspection reports.

The pharmacy regulator’s chief executive Duncan Rudkin said that this move would take place “once the legal change has been switched on”. He went on to explain that in 2016 the law changed to enable the GPhC to publish inspection reports “but this has not yet been fully enacted”. However, Mr Rudkin added that first a consultation would take place as to how the information should best be presented in order that the public understands it.

Mr Rudkin also announced that the GPhC is considering stepping away from accreditation of support staff training programmes. “Pharmacy is changing and roles are too,” he stated, highlighting that many pharmacies had diversified beyond the traditional retail, counter or dispensing assistant positions. This was covered in the consultation on guidance to ensure a safe and effective pharmacy team that closed in October, said Mr Rudkin, describing how the next step in the process was for the Council to consider the feedback and then decide how the framework should be amended and a likely timescale for implementation.

NHSE offers PTs leadership training

NHS England is offering training with the NHS Leadership Academy to up to 600 pharmacists and pharmacy technicians (PTs) working in the community sector.

Bruce Warner, England’s deputy chief pharmacist, promoted the flagship Mary Seacole Leadership Programme at the Pharmacy Show, which was held last month in Birmingham. 

Costs will be covered by the Pharmacy Integration Fund as developing a workforce across care settings is viewed as a priority for the NHS.

As TM went to press, the closing date for applications for the first six cohorts had passed. However, there are 15 cohorts in total, running in Devon, Sheffield, London, Preston, Newcastle, Hampshire, Stratford-upon-Avon, Eastern England and Liverpool, and involving a combination of online and face-to-face sessions. More information is available at: cppe.ac.uk/services/leadership-community. 

QPS stats demonstrate excellence across sector

Community pharmacy’s response to the quality payments scheme (QPS) has been excellent, England’s deputy chief pharmacist told the Pharmacy Show.

Bruce Warner detailed several highlights from the April 2017 review point data of the QPS, including:

  • Over 95 per cent of pharmacies in England have 80 per cent of staff – over 70,000 people – trained as Dementia Friends
  • Nearly all pharmacies have updated their NHS Choices profiles meaning patients are better able to check opening hours, and the services and facilities on offer
  • Around 12,500 high-risk asthma patients have been identified and referred for review
  • Approximately 20,000 pharmacy professions are trained to Level 2 safeguarding
  • Almost all pharmacies have NHSMail accounts and are enabled to receive and dispense electronic prescriptions
  • More than 95 per cent have access to summary care records with well over 10,000 of the 11,094 pharmacies increasing their use of SCRs to support clinical care.

The next review date is towards the end of this month and will allow the scheme to be evaluated, said Mr Warner.

Revalidation to reduce CPD burden 

The pharmacy regulator is to introduce a “little and often” approach to CPD alongside an improved technology platform that will make it easier to submit records for review, Duncan Rudkin stated at this year’s Pharmacy Show.

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) chief executive said: “The public’s confidence in the profession is dictated by what pharmacists and pharmacy technicians do, not by what the regulator does.” This had driven the organisation to move away from the five year review cycle, in order to reduce the administrative burden for members, and to include activities that added to pharmacy practice, he said, adding: “We need to communicate and clarify that the GPhC wants pharmacy professionals to spend their time with patients and not meeting GPhC requirements.”

Responses to the GPhC’s proposed changes to CPD as it moves towards a revalidation model included a request for more qualitative feedback, explained Mr Rudkin. This meant that records would be looked over by lay reviewers as part of the review process. Although some considered this controversial, Mr Rudkin pointed out: “It is important to remember that pharmacy is for the public.” Revalidation – which will require registrants to include peer reviews and reflective accounts in their submissions – will be introduced in a phased manner over the next two years according to a detailed implementation plan, he continued.

Supervision changes dependent on decriminalisation of dispensing errors

The much-discussed – and sometimes contentious – changes to pharmacy supervision cannot be put into place until dispensing errors are decriminalised, so said Ade Williams, superintendent of Bedminster Pharmacy in Bristol.

Speaking at a session on the work of England’s Rebalancing Programme, which aims to bring pharmacy legislation and regulation into the modern era, Mr Williams (pictured) emphasised how the situation in which inadvertent dispensing errors are viewed as criminal offences was stifling innovation. He said: “At the moment, pharmacy technicians work and excel within the current regulations.” Changing supervision so pharmacy technicians were, for example, able to supervise supply of prescription-only medicines wasn’t a move intended to “usurp pharmacists” or “do things on the cheap” but instead “about releasing the potential of the team so the patients received the best and highest quality of care”, he told Pharmacy Show delegates.

However Mr Williams said that it was vital to make sure that any changes were communicated clearly to the public, especially given that many people had expressed concerns about potential pharmacy closures due to funding cuts. He explained: “We don’t want to lose the goodwill and trust of patients… This is good for the profession, but we need to protect and communicate our integrity to the public.”

Antibiotic education

Pharmacies have a crucial role to play in educating customers about the common cold and tackling antimicrobial resistance, especially when it comes to customers asking for antibiotics, so said Professor Ron Eccles, former director of the Common Cold Centre, in a session on the assisted self care agenda.

“Patients often rush off to the GP for antibiotics at the first sign of a cold because they’re anxious and that anxiety comes from a lack of knowledge,” he said. “A very reasonable estimate is that there are 120 million colds a year in the UK – that’s a lot of business for pharmacy – and [staff] have to be confident in passing on information to customers. That confidence comes from education.”

The fact is, Professor Eccles said, antibiotics are only effective for bacterial infections and colds are viruses so they won’t help to relieve symptoms. “We often refer to colds as germs but actually germs can include viruses, bacteria and funghi so we need to be specific.” 

Professor Eccles acknowledged that discussions about antimicrobial resistance are by no means new, as studies on the subject were first carried out 80 years ago, but as antimicrobial resistance is becoming a more pressing issue and edging further up the healthcare agenda, now is the time to act.

Rugby star takes centre stage

International rugby star Jonny Wilkinson (pictured with the TM team, P3 and ICP editors) highlighted the importance of pharmacy teams maintaining a positive attitude in the face of adversity and making the most of opportunities in a motivational speech to the jam-packed Local Pharmacy Innovation Theatre. 

Speaking in his role as brand ambassador for pharmaceutical aromatherapy brand Puressentiel, Mr Wilkinson told conference delegates that whatever challenges are faced by the sector, pharmacy teams need to embrace them and use them as a basis for growth. “That [2003] World Cup game was a challenge and I hear there are challenges ahead for you guys but that challenge provides room to grow, develop and gain new skills,” he said. “Puressentiel offers opportunity and hope with natural, ethically sourced and rigorously tested products which prove people don’t necessarily need steroids or other medicines.”

After his speech, Mr Wilkinson told TM that people tend to be quick to leap to medication for every ailment when there actually may be a natural alternative with similar or even better efficacy. “Health is about how well you look after your body and we are what we put into our bodies. Yes, there is a place for medicines but we need to enlighten people and explain that there is an alternative – it doesn’t always have to be NSAIDs. We need to start putting the person first and be open minded to natural health,” he said.

Focus on hypertension

The opportunity for community pharmacy teams to step in and support people with hypertension is huge, especially as drug adherence is so poor, said Liam Stapleton, pharmacist and managing director of Metaphor Development.

Speaking in an educational session supported by Omron, Mr Stapleton told delegates that badly managed blood pressure and a lack of drug adherence – which stands at 50-80 per cent of patients – means that hypertension can have a serious negative impact on people’s quality of life, especially as it is linked to so many serious health conditions such as stroke and heart disease.

But something as simple as a series of lifestyle interventions has the potential to reduce the need for medication and get blood pressure under control. This can include exercise, eating a healthy balanced diet, reducing BMI, stopping smoking and drinking less alcohol.

Mr Stapleton highlighted the need for pharmacy teams to identify patients who could benefit from implementing these lifestyle changes, as well as checking patients are taking their medicines correctly and teaching people who do home monitoring how to do it properly. “When hypertension is monitored well, it can be managed better,” he said.

Pharmacy technician debate rumbles on

There is a place for pharmacy technicians to take on more responsibility in community pharmacy but not at the expense of patient safety or pharmacists’ clinical responsibility, said Sandra Gidley (pictured), chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) English pharmacy board, in a conference session looking at the current hot topics in community pharmacy. 

Referring to the papers leaked from the Rebalancing Board about supervision and the subsequent debate on the subject at the RPS conference, Ms Gidley commented: “Everyone seemed to agree that it’s entirely suitable for pharmacy technicians to be more involved [in pharmacy] but pharmacists must be there to do the final clinical check.” 

The RPS position is that “where there’s a medicine there must be a pharmacist” and Ms Gidley added that “having made the case for years that pharmacists are accessible on the high street, we’d be shooting ourselves in the foot if we compromise their position.”

Ms Gidley also hinted that the way discussions on supervision were carried out were unhelpful and stressed the importance of transparency. “The president reported back [to the RPS] as much as he could but there is a need for real openness and transparency, not decisions made behind closed doors,” she said.

TM’s publisher Communications International Group (CIG) was delighted to run a competition for this year’s Pharmacy Show delegates to win a Tesla Model S electric supercar by guessing the registration number. Unfortunately this time no one guessed the correct registration of: BD67GJM. Look out for CIG’s competition at next year’s Show for your chance to win another fabulous prize.

Copy Link copy link button

In-depth

Share: