Empowering you to meet regulatory and best practice requirements - P1
Empowering you to meet regulatory and best practice requirements
Patient Safety First |
The monthly Patient Safety Review (PSR) is a vital activity that enables pharmacy team members to learn from their errors, identify risks and design SMART-ER actions to continually improve their practice of pharmacy and patient safety. This month, all Patient Safety Champions are reflecting on how the PSR is used within the pharmacy and whether there are opportunities to further improve the positive impact this activity can have. Your Champion may share their reflections with you and/or set SMART-ER actions for the team in this month’s review.
Please do reflect on your personal incident and near miss incident reporting behaviour, and how you can make effective use of the PSR throughout the month to support and develop your practice of pharmacy and patient safety. When your Patient Safety Champion shares learnings from the PSR and asks for actions, share your reflections and any actions you have thought of that might help maximise the use of the PSR in your pharmacy.
NEW: Supporting locum and relief pharmacists working in your store |
Locum pharmacists fulfil an important role in the running of Boots pharmacies as well as the experience and support we provide to our patients. As they are not a regular member of the team, a supportive set-up conversation is vital to ensure that they understand what is expected of them during their time working in the store.
Accompanying this edition of The Professional Standard, you will find a guidance document for pharmacy team members and store leaders. This document has been designed to help you have a robust welcome and set-up conversation with a locum pharmacist when they first work in your store.
You will also find a summary quick reference guide, which is intended for use by locum and relief pharmacists working in your store. For this to be effective, this should be completed with your store’s specific details and stored in the Pharmacy Duty Folder (using the folder divider provided).
The documents mentioned above can also be found on BootsLive.
Please note that the documents described above are intended for non-hospital stores only; separate guidance for hospital dispensaries will be issued in due course.
NEW: Anaphylaxis guidance for patients |
As part of their Adrenaline Auto-Injector (AAI) Safety Campaign, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has launched new guidance to highlight the latest safety advice on the steps to take during anaphylaxis. Please ensure that patients for whom you dispense (an) adrenaline auto-injector(s) such as Epipen®, Jext® or Emerade®, know how to use their AAI and that they are aware of the steps to be taken in an anaphylaxis emergency. It may be helpful to signpost patients or their carers to the updated MHRA guidance.
An individual who is experiencing the first signs of an anaphylactic reaction may present in a community pharmacy to access help. It may, therefore, be useful for all pharmacy team members to familiarise themselves with the updated MHRA guidance.
UPDATE: Naseptin® Nasal Cream reformulation |
Naseptin® Nasal Cream has undergone a formulation change in which the excipient arachis oil (peanut oil) has been removed. Both the original formulation containing arachis oil and the revised formulation without arachis oil will be in circulation in the supply chain until November 2025. Arachis oil may induce an allergic response in some people, therefore, extra care regarding patient allergy status must be taken when dispensing this product. Please check if the patient has a peanut or soya* allergy and, if so, only the formulation that does not contain arachis oil should be dispensed.
*Note: people with an allergy to soya should avoid arachis oil due to a possible relationship between peanut and soya allergies.