The future of pharmacy training

The future of pharmacy education and training is under review today at a national conference held by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).

The training of the whole pharmacy team is going to be scrutinised as the regulator considers how pharmacy can play its part in meeting future healthcare challenges.

The GPhC will use what it learns from the conference to help redraft the standards for the initial education and training of the pharmacy team. It will then hold a public consultation on the standards before they are published and implemented.

NHS spending needs ‘critical leap of logic’

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A letter has been sent today urging the Chancellor of the Exchequer to make a ‘critical leap of logic’ in the upcoming spending review.

Former Secretary of State for Health and Chair of the Health Select Committee and Chair of the NHS Confederation, Stephen Dorrell, said the government must take a bold step to ring-fence health and social care budgets.

“To have NHS budgets rise while social care budgets fall is bad economics and bad social policy.

"Without investment in social care and public health, unnecessary pressure is being placed on other parts of the service, including hospitals leaving an already significant dent in the £8 billion promised to the NHS,” he said.

New primary care centre planned

Plans for a new primary care and community services centre will be made public for the first time this week, Wales Online has reported.

Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board is proposing to transfer GP and community services to the premises in Porthcawl after looking for a suitable site since 2006.

It has not yet been confirmed if a pharmacy will be part of the integrated site.

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Thousands of pharmacy hours wasted on recruitment

The UK pharmaceutical industry is misusing 11,400 weeks of management time every year by failing to adopt best practice recruitment processes, according to research carried out by Randstad Inhouse Services.

The findings revealed managers typically spend 30% of their time hiring new staff, equating to 11,400 non-productive hours.

Sally Cleary, Managing Director of Randstad, says: “You’d think that pharma, of all industries, would be at the cutting edge of business practice but in many cases the opposite is true.”

Childhood Obesity Epidemic

The UK is facing a childhood obesity epidemic with almost one in five children leaving primary school obese, the Royal Society for Public Health has announced.

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The report also revealed that only one in five parent found information received from the National Child Measurement Programme useful.

They have called for improved training for health workers to offer advice to parents during pregnancy and the early years.