The LPC has been working with Newcastle City Council and Newcastle Gateshead CCG to develop a blood pressure testing service to identify patients with untreated hypertension, following an award of funding from the British Heart Foundation.

The service will be provided by  20 pharmacies in Gateshead, targeting areas of multiple deprivation. The service will only be available to patients registered with a  Gateshead GP practice.

Your health champion and any other appropriate member of staff will be trained as a blood pressure champion and will deliver the service. Blood pressure meters will be provided to the pharmacy. Patients identified in the pharmacy as potentially being hypertensive will be provided with a blood pressure meter to use at home for seven days and then return to the pharmacy for the results to be reviewed. All information will be recorded in PharmOutcomes and if necessary, a referral letter will be sent to the patient's GP practice and an appointment made for them.

Training will take place on Wednesday 24th April at the Clarion Hotel Bolden (6.30-7pm start)

Fees
You will be paid £10 for each patient given a home blood pressure meter, following an abnormal blood pressure reading and £10 for each patient referred to their GP.
 
There is no funding for a normal Blood Pressure reading.
All Healthy Living Pharmacies within Gateshead CCG  are invited to express an interest in providing the Blood Pressure Testing service.  In determining which pharmacies will participate in the service the CCGs will apply the following selection criteria:

• Ease of access for residents within the locality
• Location within the Gateshead CCG area with respect to other pharmacy providers
• Location within the Gateshead CCG area with respect to identified gaps in estimated prevalence of hypertension and Quality Outcomes Framework disease register for Hypertension
• Pharmacy team including locums fully aware and committed to providing the service at the time of expression
• Pharmacy willing to participate in evaluation of the service and use of PharmOutcomes to collect data

Please use  the link below to book yourself on the training and express interest for your pharmacy to take part.  If the service is oversubscribed the council will look at the areas and decide which pharmacies will be able to take part.

The LPC is pleased to announce that the next clinical training events to enable Community Pharmacists to offer more PGDs have been arranged for 7th and 14th March. At the first date an overview of the new PGDs will be given, followed by more in-depth clinical training to accompany the PGDs at the second. Please book onto both sessions. The exact number of PGDs that we will cover is currently not known, but we have 11 more completed; which are on sign off and working through the CCG for approval.


Please use the forms below to book on- you will need to book onto both sessions individually.


In addition, if you missed the training for the first 2 PGDs, the training will be repeated for these PGDs at the end of the clinical training on the 14th.

Working with our colleagues at Gateshead Council Public Health we have arranged 2 EHC training sessions which will be run on the 12th September 2018 and 16th October 2018 for pharmacists in Gateshead & South Tyneside.  The training will be held at the Quality Hotel in Boldon.  Refreshments will be avialble from 6.30pm with the training starting at 7pm


The workshop will be run by Dr Janet Gallagher (Associate Specialist Sexual Health Services) and will provide an :- 

• Introduction to sexual health services available in South Tyneside & Gateshead 
• Introduction of pharmacy to sexual health signposting and referral pathways
• Understanding of the accredited EHC provider programme
• Introduction to core roles and responsibilities of pharmacies and sexual health service
• Introduction to EHC PGD and professional obligations

The training  will cover you for face to face training requirements in Gateshead and South Tyneside EHC Service.  Booking early will avoid disappointment as EHC sessions tend to get booked up very quickly.

You can book on to either session using the forms below.  Both sessions are exactly the same.

Working with our colleagues at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital we are again delighted  to announce that we have agreed a series of training sessions for this years flu training.

In order to provide this years flu service you will need to ensure you have correct training.  

The pharmacist flu training cycle is over two years and you only need to attend a face to face training session every 2nd year.  In the interim year you still need to do a refresher / update training (Normally via an online course and assesment)

This year the LPC has worked with the QE to offer a competitivley priced training session that can be used for the refresher or face to face.

The advantage of using this as your refresher training means in the evening you will have completed the training required instead of having to do an online package and assessment.  This training will also provide you with a private PGD to use.

Please book using the forms below

Please note the training sessions will start at 6.30pm and there will only be light refreshments (Tea & Biscuits).  
Attendees may wish to bring a sandwich along.

North Of Tyne, Gateshead and South Tyneside and Co Durham and Darlington LPCs have worked collaboratively to organise a couple of awareness raising sessions around the current consultation on GPhC’s proposals on how it plans to develop its approach to regulating pharmacies. 

We have arranged 2 venues on 2 different dates,  one North and one South of the combined LPC's area.  You are welcome to attend which ever meeting is most convenient to you. Both events will be identical

• 26th June 2018 Ramside Hall, Durham
• 27th June 2018 Holiday Inn, Seaton Burn

Use the booking forms below to register your place at the event.
 
Click here for full details of the consultation:  which began on 17 May and runs to 9 August.
 
In short GPhC is proposing the following key changes:
 

• Moving to unannounced inspections
• Changing inspection outcomes to:
  • Standards met
  • Standards not all met
• Requiring all standards to be met to receive an overall ‘standards met’ outcome
• Publishing inspection reports
• Sharing examples of notable practice

 
Alison Hopkins, GPhC Inspector, will be presenting and will take you through the proposals and respond to queries.
 
Health Education England (HEE)
 
At the same event HEE will be presenting about their strategy for the future of pharmacy education, particularly in relation to pre-registration trainees and the Oriel system.
 
 

A new Pharmacy service called CPRS (Community Pharmacy Referral Service) is being launched in the North East.  It is being commissioned by NHS England.  You may have received some calls about the service from NHS England via colleagues from the regional LPC's.

 Co Durham and Darlington LPC, Gateshead and South Tyneside LPC and Sunderland LPC have collaborated to deliver a CPRS launch event and will be co-hosting the event on 30 November 2017 at the Ramside Hall, Durham. DH1 1TD.

The LPCs would be delighted to see as many pharmacies as possible represented at the event. Mike Maguire and Andre Yeung, LPN Chairs and architects of CPRS, will be presenting details of the new pharmacy service and will provide you with all you need to know about  CPRS.
 
The meeting will start at 7pm however refreshments and sponsors will be there from 6pm.
To register for this event please use the booking form below.  Some further information about the new service can be found below.
 

CPRS Summary
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Aims of the service

The aim of the service is to appropriately manage patients contacting NHS 111 with low acuity conditions, through referral to a community pharmacy to reduce pressure on the  primary and urgent care system, particularly GP out of hours.
The NHS Community Pharmacy Referral Service (‘CPRS’) is available in Northumbria, Tyne & Wear, Durham, Darlington and Tees. 

What the service will provide

The agreement is for the pharmacy to provide self-care advice and support. This will include printed information to all people referred to the pharmacy by NHS 111, due to a specified low acuity condition.

The end points of the consultation may include: 

• advice given only
• advice and the sale of an OTC medicine
• advice and referral into the pharmacy local MAS (dependent on local commissioning arrangements - please see each service specification)
• advice and ‘direct dial’ access to GP to set up appointment (each pharmacy will use a local arrangement for this)
• advice and signpost on to another service

How to access the service

Any patient, even those registered with a GP from outside the North East, can access CPRS as they would likely still have attended another care location in the area. 
To access the service patients must:

• have called NHS111 and been referred are eligible to receive advice and treatment
• opt-in 
• be assessed by the pharmacy, potentially being referred to other health and social care professionals, where appropriate

Patients who wish to consult their GP or other health care provider for their condition are still free to do so. 

Timescale

The North East CPRS is due to  commence from 4th December 2017 and run until 31 March 2018. 

Service Specification

As with all services contractors are advised to read the service specification to make yourselves familiar with the terms and conditions before agreeing to this service.  A copy of the spec can be downloaded below.
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Register to provide the service

If you are a pharmacy within the specified North East areas and you intend to provide the service between 4 December 2017 and 31 March 2018, you must register your pharmacy’s details with NHS England first by completing the form on the NHSBSA website.  This can be accessed byclicking here.

Working with our colleagues at Gateshead Council Public Health we have arranged an EHC training session on the  7th November 2017 for pharmacists in Gateshead & South Tyneside.  The training will be held at the Quality Hotel in Boldon.  Refreshments will be avialble from 6.30pm with the training starting at 7pm

This training will cover you for face to face training requirements in Gateshead and South Tyneside.  Booking early will avoid disappointment as EHC sessions tend to get booked up very quickly.

You can book using the form below
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Due to the demand of pharmacist still requiring flu training, we have arranged one last session of training with the QE hospital.  The training costs £60 and will be held at the QE hospital on 10th October.  You can book on the  event using the forms below.  This will be the last session we can put on for this year so please book asap to avoid disappointment.