ISSUE NO.39 WEEKENDING 9thOctober 2015

GENERAL INFORMATION

ENHANCED SERVICE - SUPPLY OF MEDICINES DURING HEALTH PROTECTION EMERGENCIES

Please find attached a draft SLA which details a service whereby a community pharmacy would be paid for the stockholding, stock management and supply of medication to patients or Public Health England in the case of an emergency.

We are looking for expressions of interest from contractors before awarding the service. Please complete the attached proforma and return by email to by Thursday 15th October 2015.

Criteria taken in to consideration will be:

Geographical spread of the contracts

Opening hours

How the contractor will provide availability over weekends, bank holidays and statutory holidays (see SLA for details). We would not expect full day cover on bank holidays or statutory holidays unless you were already open but would require a minimum of 2 hours availability on such days either as part of Rota or as an on call facility.

We will also look at what processes you would have in place for the couriering of medications if this part of the service is requested by either PHE or a care home facility.

Pharmacies will also have to have a Wholesale dealers licence in order to deliver this service.

If a contractor has an alternative proposal which would meet all the criteria in an innovative way we would be willing to assess a novel proposal as part of our assessment panel.

NHS BSA HINTS AND TIPS

Issue 21 of NHS Prescription Services 'Hints& Tips' for information services users is now available to read on the BSA website.

Please follow the link below:

GUIDANCE – VACCINES AND PORCINE GELATINE

Please note that Public Health England (PHE) has issued guidance relating to the use of vaccines that make use of porcine gelatine. The attached information leaflet aims to raise awareness amongst healthcare professionals of vaccines currently used in the national immunisation programme that contain porcine gelatine and any alternatives that are available.

COMMUNITY PHARMACY SEASONAL INFLUENZA VACCINATION ADVANCED SERVICE

Can we please remind contractors that prior to provision of the above service, the pharmacy contractor must have signed up to service delivery through the NHS BSA website (

NHS England North (Cheshire & Merseyside) have been informed of a number of incidents where GP Practices have received “Notification of NHS Flu Vaccination” for patients who are not registered with the practice.

The pharmacies concerned have not been in the Cheshire and Merseyside area; however we would like to take this opportunity to remind pharmacists to be extra vigilant when choosing the patient’s GP practice from the drop down list as this may have Information Governance implications.

PHARMACY WEBINAR .... SAVE THE DATE -RECRUITING AND RETAINING PATIENTS INTO PHARMACY STOP SMOKING SERVICES, EXAMPLES FROM PRACTICE.

Date: Wednesday 25th November 2015

Time: 7.00pm – 8.00pm

Location: Webinar (remote dial-in)

Speaker: Michael Walsh (Owner and Community Pharmacist, Walsh’s Pharmacy, Northern Ireland)and Gordon Walker (Pharmacist, Lindsay & Gilmour, Edinburgh)

Registration: via the below registration button (free of charge)

Agenda

7.00pm-7.05pm: Welcome and Introductions

7.05pm-7.25pm: Presentation of Michael’s ‘12 Week Quit Programme’

7.25pm-7.40pm: Presentation of Gordon’s audit data on ‘Increasing Service Footfall and Quit Attempts within Pharmacies’

7.40pm-7.55pm: Live audience Q&A with Michael and Gordon

7.55pm-8.00pm: Meeting close

Please follow this link to register

WARRINGTON

CCG BULLETIN

WESTERN CHESHIRE

CCG BULLETIN

WEST CHESHIRE MEDICINES MANAGEMENT TEAM UPDATE

Information on future cost-effective switch areas:

Current product / New Product
Venlafaxine MR 75mg, 150mg (brand and generic) / Vensir® XL
Fentanyl patch (brand and generic) / Matrifen®
Azithromycin capsules / Azithromycin tablets
Tramadol MR (twice daily) / Immediate release capsules or Maxitram SR®

Availability of products will be confirmed in advance. Our Team will also contact individual Community Pharmacies for switches involving high numbers of patients.

Prescribing of thickeners eg. Resource Thicken up ®

Please see article in September 2015 edition of Tablets NWCSU Medicines Management Team Newsletter. Prescriber instructions for thickeners should be added to labels on dispensing, to guide on correct consistency of food/ fluid.

For further information contact West Cheshire locality Medicines Management Team , North West Commissioning Support Unit (NWCSU) , Tel 01244 385089

If you have any comments or suggestions for the Community Pharmacy Bulletin please contact