Thursday 11th December 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.

Providing the New Medicines Service and want a clinical update (and fantastic CPD) for the new, expanded ‘depression’ arm of the service? Then look no further than our Mental Health NMS Update event in Exeter on 27th January 2026.

We will host an evening event covering contractual service updates, a whistle-stop mental health update (tailored to community pharmacy teams from a local secondary care mental health expert) and case discussion of real-world scenarios that could happen in your pharmacy. As always there will be hot food and all members of the pharmacy team are welcome to attend.

Book a place here.

If you face any type of abuse from patients, please don’t feel like you have to tolerate it. The following actions can be considered:

• Call the police: Please report instances to the police who can provide appropriate support and take action where appropriate.
• Refuse to dispense the prescription: The pharmacy regulations permit this if a pharmacy owner or their staff (or other people at the premises) are threatened with or subject to violence or other criminal behaviour.
• Contact your LPC: Speak to your LPC who may be able to assist in handling the situation locally.

To help prevent such behaviour in the first place, Community Pharmacy England has produced posters that highlight the importance of treating pharmacy team members with kindness and respect. We will also keep working to raise awareness of this issue and pushing for other measures to help pharmacy owners and their teams.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society also provides guidance on ‘tackling difficult situations in your pharmacy’ see here. 

The General Pharmaceutical Council has a zero approach to violence and has also reminded employers of their duty of care to keep their staff safe at work and to consider steps to reduce the risk to their staff experiencing any abuse, see here.

The New Year is looming and is often a time for resolutions to be made. Patients may seek your help to make lifestyle changes and, if eligible, a blood pressure check has the potential to save lives.
CVD is a leading cause of premature death in England, and hypertension is its biggest risk factor with an estimated 5.5 million undiagnosed cases. If you aren’t yet providing the hypertension service, or have started and would like to know how you can expand it, this workshop is for you.

CPPE will be holding a Blood Pressure Assessment in Community Pharmacy Face-to-Face Workshop in January. This will be suitable for Pharmacy Technicians, Trainee Pharmacists and Pharmacists and will help with building confidence and competence with the service, especially the ABPM. A Community Pharmacist with knowledge and expertise in this area will be in attendance to share their insights and answer any questions you may have.

Come along to network, gain knowledge and pick up top tips. Refreshments of hot drinks, sandwiches and cakes will be available.
Time: 19.00pm - 21.30pm

Date: January 13th 2026 

Location: Exeter Court Hotel, Kennford, Exeter, EX6 7UX.

Click here to book.

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!

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