Concerns raised after medication dispensing system withdrawn from Bromsgrove chemists

Concerns have been raised in Bromsgrove after funding was withdrawn for Boots the Chemist to fill a medication dispensing system, the Bromsgrove Advertiser reports.

The Pivotell system dispenses medication at set times, and issues an alarm to help remind people that their medication is due to be taken.

Until March, the machines were filled by the Bromsgrove branch of Boots, but from April, the county council withdrew funding for the system, and now Boots has also decided it will no longer fill the machines, even if customers are prepared to pay.

Patricia Meredith has an elderly friend who relies on her Pivotell machine. She said: “She’s on her own. She’s not got anyone to help her. She’s been in hospital a couple of times before because she took the wrong medication, she got confused.”

Anger of addict who arrived at pharmacy too late for methadone prescription

Frustrated that he had arrived at a pharmacy after closing time and was unable to collect his methadone prescription a homeless man took his anger out on the shop doors, the Swindon Advertiser reports.

Robert Boston-Thomas appeared before Swindon magistrates to answer two criminal damage charges and one of being drunk and disorderly in a public place dating from March 29.

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Pauline Lambert, prosecuting, told the court that 45-year-old Boston-Thomas had arrived at Boots at the Greenbridge Retail Park at around 8.20pm on the day in question and found that the store had closed 20 minutes earlier.

Bellaghy man admits breaking into pharmacy and stealing prescription drugs

A 20 year-old south Derry man has pleaded guilty to breaking in to Bellaghy Pharmacy and stealing prescription drugs, the Mid-Ulster Mail reports.

Sean McKenna, from Springfield Park, Bellaghy, admitted entering the premises at Main Street in the village on June 5 last year.

District Judge Alan White adjourned the case at Magherafelt Court until May 18 for a pre-sentence report and told McKenna to cooperate with Probation authorities.

Pharmacy owner hoping to open new chemist in Yeovil hits back at town council

A pharmacy owner who is looking to open a new chemist shop in Yeovil has hit back at the town council after they recommended the plans for refusal, the Western Gazette reports.

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Max Punni wishes to turn a property on West Coker Road into a pharmacy near the junction with Forest Hill.

Mr Punni owns the existing Options Pharmacy on West Coker Road, but says that the shop has outgrown its current premises and is looking to convert a house opposite to provide his customers with a more spacious store.

Yeovil Town Council recommended that the plans be refused at a meeting earlier this month on the grounds that allowing a pharmacy would cause an increase in traffic, the endangerment of schoolchildren using the existing bus stop opposite the proposed site, concerns regarding security, noise and light pollution, and insufficient parking.

Final piece of type 1 diabetes puzzle solved

A complete picture of the areas that the immune system attacks to cause type 1 diabetes has finally been revealed by scientists, the BBC reports.

The study, published in the journal Diabetes, discovered the fifth and final critical target at which the immune system errantly takes aim.

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The team at the University of Lincoln say the findings could help develop new ways to prevent and treat the disease. Diabetes UK said the findings were "impressive".