National organisations will be required to standardise the way they issue patient safety alerts within the next 12 months, following the launch of national patient safety alerts.


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The Department of Health and Social Care has suggested pharmacists share their medicine supply with other pharmacies to mitigate the impact of shortages on patients.


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Testing individuals with any risk factor for the hepatitis C virus is more cost effective than restricting screening to people with a history of injecting drugs, a study based in the Isle of Wight has found.


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The penalty charge notice system in England, which fines people up to £100 for wrongly claiming a free prescription, is not fit for purpose and needs to be overhauled, MPs have said.


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Single pills with fixed-dose combinations of several medicines are not commonplace for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. As the first randomised controlled trial to show a polypill can cut the risk of heart attacks is published, we look at why, nearly two decades after it was first proposed, development and uptake is limited. 


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Hospital treatment for patients with poorly controlled diabetes cost the NHS more than £3bn in avoidable costs in 2017/2018, a study presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes’s Annual Meeting in Barcelona, Spain has revealed.


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The General Pharmaceutical Council has placed conditions on the supply of medicines by three online pharmacies following patient safety concerns raised during its inspection process.


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Pharmaceutical contractor fraud could be costing the NHS in England around £111m each year.


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Work towards a UK-wide foundation pharmacy technician framework will be undertaken by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and Work Psychology Group — a team of organisational psychology consultants.


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The European Medicines Agency is to start a review of ranitidine medicines after tests revealed that some products contain the impurity N-nitrosodimethylamine.


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Prescriptions for gabapentin, pregabalin and oxycodone increased year on year between 2013 and 2018 across primary care in England, study results published in the British Journal of General Practice show.


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The General Pharmaceutical Council has rated just six pharmacies as ‘excellent’ following more than 14,500 inspections between August 2013 and November 2018.


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The first reusable, propellant-free inhaler is now available for patients with asthma and COPD, in line with NHS plans to reduce its carbon footprint and plastic waste.


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The use of multicompartment compliance aids in the community is “excessive” and an “ingrained area of practice” that needs to be challenged, guidance from NHS Wales is expected to warn. 


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Point-of-care C-reactive protein testing reduces antibiotic use in people with acute COPD exacerbations, a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine has shown.


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The number of clinical pharmacists needed to work in the new primary care networks in England by 2023/2024 could be as high as 7,500, according to a calculation by London GPs.


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The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is reviewing information about a respiratory illness that has been linked to e-cigarette use in the United States.


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The government risks making drugs shortages worse with its generics reimbursement reforms, unless the proposals are rolled out gradually, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee has said.


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A five-year deal to supply NHS Scotland with cystic fibrosis drugs Orkambi and Symkevi has been secured after discussions between the manufacturer, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and the Scottish government.


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The difference in pass rates between black African and white British preregistration trainees taking the General Pharmaceutical Council registration assessment has widened by four percentage points since 2018.


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