Thursday 27th November 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.

Please find attached a promotional poster that highlights the new CPD accredited training academy that Orion Medical has recently launched covering Needle Exchange Provision & Image and Performance Enhancing Drugs (IPED).

A Naloxone training module will be added and accredited at some point in the future.

This training is free to Orion’s client’s including all pharmacy staff commissioned to deliver Needle Exchange.

As the training is accredited everyone will have to register to receive their CPD points and certificate.

The link to register is: - https://orionmedical.co.uk/training-academy-registration/

Please use this as required to both support your knowledge and gain CPD points in the process.

A study for the JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance journal has looked at the use of TARGET Treating Your Infection (TYI-RTI) leaflets across community pharmacies in England through the Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS). These leaflets are designed to support healthcare professionals in delivering tailored conversations with patients about respiratory tract infection (RTI) symptoms. The study showed positive outcomes relating to the number of patients requiring escalation to the pharmacist and signposting to another healthcare provider. 

Further details of the progress community pharmacy teams have made in promoting AMS and tacking AMR through the Pharmacy Quality Scheme can also be found via NHS England's website.

Please be aware that from January 2026 the sexual health team will be signposting patients who require Oral Contraception into community pharmacy. They will be adding information to their website and also having posters that link to the "find a pharmacy" website, so please ensure that your DOS profile is up to date.

What this means for you is that you may see increased activity or patients coming to your pharmacies seeking out this service from January.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England have published new leaflets and posters on ongoing medicine supply challenges. These resources, available on the Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS) website, include guidance for healthcare teams and information for patients affected by shortages.

Medicine supply issues remain a daily pressure for community pharmacies, often requiring extra time and effort to source alternatives and support patients. These new materials aim to ease that burden by providing advice and communication tools from an official source. You can view the resources on our website here.

Community pharmacy Devon would like to give a special shout out to all contractors in Devon who have signed up and delivered the national services! See below for more detail:

Pharmacy First

Since October 2024 Devon Pharmacies have completed over 55,000 clinical pathway consultations.

Hypertension case finding

Since October 2024 Devon Pharmacies have supported over 66,000 patients with clinic readings and ABPMs.

Contraception

Since October 2024 Devon Pharmacies have completed over 22,000 Contraception interactions. 

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!

Click the name you need to email them directly: