Empowering you to meet regulatory and best practice requirements

Please access the following link and complete the Independent Prescriber Registration Form to register your interest for future prescribing opportunities within Boots: https://www.bootslearning.co.uk/learn/#/course/d2f8d786-8226-40d5-8938-39d18d70a888

This month, our Patient Safety Champions' letter focuses on two key tools designed to support the pharmacy team in resetting patient safety standards in your pharmacy as we adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. These are the monthly Patient Safety Review (PSR) and ChAMPion Check-ins.

Your Patient Safety Champion (and any deputy) will be asking you for feedback on their check-ins with you, and will be highlighting that the PSR can be used throughout the month to aid the whole pharmacy team in securing our patient safety ambition. This is a key opportunity for all pharmacy team members to encourage your Champion with positive feedback on what they do well, and provide constructive suggestions on what they could do differently to be even better.

Now you have completed the Our Just Culture (Part 2) eLearning, remember to put what you have learned into practice, by setting SMART-ER objectives for any patient safety-related development needs you identify, and also by ensuring you avoid ‘drift’!

The lead article in last month’s edition of The Professional Standard discussed the importance of a ‘Just Culture’ in patient safety. The responsibility to be open, honest and to say sorry in a meaningful way when things go wrong, even in difficult or challenging circumstances, is integral to a ‘Just Culture’.

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has announced two new published resources: Keeping patients safe – being open and honest and Pharmacy team toolkit – learning from incidents, to help pharmacy professionals and their teams understand and fulfil the duty of candour – the professional responsibility to be open and honest with patients when something has gone wrong. The resources emphasise that the duty of candour is not an ‘add on’ but is a fundamental part of professional pharmacy practice.

All pharmacy professionals should familiarise themselves with the new resources from the GPhC, which can be accessed via https://www.pharmacyregulation.org/news/new-gphc-resources-duty-candour-highlight-importance-saying-sorry-when-things-go-wrong 

Pharmacy team members in England are reminded that a prescription issued via the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) should only be returned to the NHS Spine in one of two circumstances. These are: firstly, at the request of the prescriber or, secondly, if the patient wishes the prescription to be dispensed elsewhere (in which case, the prescription should be returned to the NHS Spine so that it can be retrieved by the alternative provider).

Returning an EPS prescription to the NHS Spine under any other circumstances, such as when prescribed medication is not wanted/not collected by the patient or if an item is unavailable from the manufacturer, risks the prescription being downloaded at a later date by the pharmacy nominated to receive the patient’s EPS prescriptions. This could lead to the patient being provided with medication that they don’t want or that is no longer clinically appropriate. In any such situation, the item(s) on the prescription should be marked as ‘not dispensed’ (ND).

Pharmacy team members are asked to be vigilant when downloading prescriptions for a patient for whom the pharmacy is newly nominated to receive their EPS prescriptions, to ensure these are current for the patient and are not previously returned to the NHS Spine. Please also be mindful that some pharmacy jargon, such as: “I’m returning your prescription to the NHS Spine” is not meaningful patient-friendly language, which should always be used in conversations with patients, or their representatives, when discussing EPS processes.

SOP AD06 (Updating patient information and responding to a request to provide records) and the hospital store equivalent, SOP HAD06, are due for review this month. However, they are currently being re-written to align with the other Additional Dispensing Related Tasks SOPs due to be launched in August. As a result, the review date of these SOPs has been extended to August 2022. 

The Pharmacy Support Helpdesk can be contacted via the One Number (0115 957 5555) by selecting options 2, 3, 2 or emailing pharmacysupportgroup@boots.co.uk. Please contact the Pharmacy Support Helpdesk if you have any questions or need support with any of the topics covered in this edition. 

This month, GSK is introducing a new 28-tablet pack size of Nexium Control™ (esomeprazole) as a Pharmacy only medicine. All pharmacy and healthcare team members should be aware that this larger pack contains sufficient tablets for two periods of treatment, as Nexium Control™ should only be used at the dosage of one tablet daily for up to two weeks.

If symptoms recur within three months of the initial course of up to two weeks, the patient should seek advice from their GP rather than continuing with over-the-counter treatment. If more than three months has passed since the initial course, the patient may start a further treatment course. This information will be supported by a Boots Healthcare Way scenario card, which will arrive in store during July.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, guidance and a training document were issued to enable non-healthcare trained colleagues to provide additional support to healthcare trained team members with the sale of over-the-counter medicines. As the COVID-19 pandemic circumstances have evolved, this guidance should no longer be used in stores, meaning that all sales of pharmacy medicines must be completed by healthcare trained team members only.

The importance of bowel cancer screening has received much media coverage over recent months. Bowel cancer screening is a way of testing healthy people to see if they show any early signs of cancer and involves a test called a Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT), which looks for hidden blood in faeces. Eligible adults across the UK will be sent a test kit to use in the privacy of their own home. Pharmacy team members can make a difference to their communities by raising awareness of bowel cancer – in particular, in regard to the symptoms and the NHS Bowel Screening Programme. Find out more information by visiting: https://www.bowelcanceruk.org.uk/about-bowel-cancer/