Community Pharmacy Devon Weekly Dose 💊

Thursday 23rd January 2025

Welcome to your weekly injection of local and national pharmacy news! As always, if you have any feedback or comments, please contact us by email at admin@cpdevon.org.uk.

Clinical Skills Training for Community Pharmacists in Devon

The Teach and Treat pilot in Devon has opened up additional clinical skills training sessions to community pharmacists in Devon. These training sessions have received excellent feedback from pharmacists attending and include topics such as respiratory examination, history taking and consultation, dermatology and hypertension. For more information you can view the flyer here and to book a place please click here.

Teach and Treat Pilot in Devon

The success of the Teach and Treat Independent Prescribing pilot in Plymouth has influenced the government to expand the scheme across England. The Teach and Treat pilot is hosted by the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust and led by Vicky Webb, has supported 20 community pharmacists in Devon to complete their prescribing qualification with another 16 currently in progress. For more on this, click here.

NHS Pharmacy Contraception Service - Oral Contraception

Join us at one of the CPPE and CPD collaborative workshops on:

Sunday February 9th in Exeter - Keycode: DEVON 2025

Tuesday March 25th in Plymouth - Keycode: Plymouth 2025

The NHS Pharmacy Contraception Service will become part of the NHS Pharmacy First service bundle required for £1000 monthly block payments by March 31st 2025. How confident do you feel about providing consultations to initiate oral contraception as part of the NHS Pharmacy Contraception Service? This workshop supports you to gain confidence when in consultations with patients who are starting, restarting or switching oral contraceptives.

After completing all aspects of this workshop, you should be able to:

apply appropriate person-centred consultation skills to enable an effective medical history to be taken
explore the suitability of oral contraception for people who access the service, in accordance with their individual needs and in line with the service specification and PGDs
discuss information and guidance regarding contraception options, to enable the person to make an informed choice on an appropriate contraceptive for them
provide information on long-acting reversible contraceptives and discuss their advantages, side effects and suitability for people using this service
support people to explore their concerns or side effects linked to contraception and be able to discuss alternative options.

Book via the CPPE website – but remember to use the relevant KEYCODE.

Winter Flu Vaccination Campaign - Pharmacy Flu Vaccination Service Finder

We've received feedback that some pharmacies on the Flu Vaccination Pharmacy Finder do not have vaccine stock. Pharmacies should ensure that the website accurately represents NHS seasonal flu vaccination availability to prevent wasted journeys by the public.

The flu programme runs until 31 March 2025 and vaccine remains available to order. It can be obtained at a reduced minimum order size with 2/3 days delivery direct from the manufacturer or from medicines wholesalers.

Pharmacies should check their published status at Flu Vaccination Pharmacy Finder and make changes if necessary. Changes take effect immediately and can be made using the Profile Manager.

Pharmacy Professionals Incubator Survey Now Live!

A nationwide survey has been launched to gather insights on the challenges pharmacy professionals face when engaging in research and potential solutions. The survey is based on insights from focus groups held last year, which are currently formally in the process of formally writing up.

It is open to all UK-registered pharmacists and pharmacy technicians; we have been asked to share the survey with colleagues. No research experience is needed to participate in the survey.

The survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete and will close on the 17th February 2025. Link here: https://forms.office.com/e/RkcmSTzpYr

To learn more about the work of the Pharmacy Professionals Incubator, visit their website https://pharmacyresearchprofessionals.org.uk/

Pharmacy Pressures Survey

Community Pharmacy England’s 2025 Pharmacy Pressures Survey will be launching later today.

As in previous years this annual survey asks questions to assess the current level of pressures on community pharmacies, covering issues such as financial concerns, workload/capacity, and staffing and morale. This continues to be a critical source of information and statistics to highlight the challenges facing our sector to journalists, MPs and Ministers, patient groups, and other policy influencers. Reports from our previous surveys can be seen here.

Positive News Stories

If you have a positive news story to share with us please send it to admin@cpdevon.org.uk and it will be featured in an upcoming edition of the review. If featured, you will also win a surprise gift for you and your team up to the value of £25!

COMMUNITY PHARMACY DEVON SECRETARIAT TEAM

Click the name you need to email them directly: