The debate continues as to whether pharmacies should stock these products...

Whether we do or don't, however, many "pop up" shops are now springing up in city centres with quite aggressive marketing (see the picture I took on a recent trip to Leeds) and "vaping" is becoming more and more main-stream. I was at the theatre a couple of weeks ago and the person next to me was sucking on an e-cigarette during the performance. I've seen people in pubs reach for e-cigarettes and e-cigars. I've even heard of e-pipes! 

Why is this happening? Well, e-cigarettes are neither medicines nor tobacco products so restrictions on supply don't apply and advertising is aggressive...they also seem to be popular with younger smokers with all the different flavours available for vaping.

At the last LPC we had an interesting presentation about e-cigarettes and it turns out that the evidence shows that 71% of people who use these products are attempting to quit smoking, but 2/3 of users stop within a month and return to smoking...perhaps because they don't deliver nicotine at the same rate as cigarettes? 

As they are battery operated devices, when the battery runs down - the rate of delivery reduces. Indeed - this is one of he reasons why it is so difficult to manufacture a licensed product!

So, if many vaping individuals are giving up vaping, are e-cigarette users an opportunity for Pharmacy? 

Yes, I believe this is true. 

We should be advising users of e-cigarettes (vapers) that when they stop using them, pharmacies offer smoking cessation clinics where expert advice combined with supply of licensed nicotine products can really help smokers to quit!

Johnson & Johnson have produced some useful flow charts to help pharmacy staff as well as poster.  You can see these by clicking  here where you will be able to rode some to be sent to you.

You may or may not know about an enhanced service - only available in South Tyneside - which we used to call "supervision/daily dispensing of non cd drugs." 

This service has been around for many years and was originally commissioned by the old South Tyneside health authority. It isn't used very often. It is (was) ahead of its time really...the idea is that vulnerable adults identified by the GP/prescriber as needing support daily are sent to the pharmacy with what's known as a "white form" - and a monthly prescription.This avoids the need for daily prescriptions for these very vulnerable members of society - Very useful if patients are at risk of overdose. The pharmacy then dispenses, or supervises, the product daily (or as suggested in the form). 

The pharmacy make a claim for the supplies via a claim pathway. I say it's ahead of its time because it's exactly this sort of service that was identified in the recent "call to a action" - to allow pharmacists to provide better care to patients... 

Sadly there's talk of a service review and this service is currently "on hold" as South Tyneside is an outlier...and since the NHS changes, a budget needs to be found for it to continue. 

So much for innovation...It's this sort of service that should be commissioned everywhere to help vulnerable adults stay out of institutions or prevent accidental or deliberate overdosing...

I had an email the other day from South Tyneside CCG regarding an issue under public consultation at the moment; namely the new emergency care hub idea - that is the idea to develop a one stop shop on the general hospital site. 

There were very few members of the public at the first consultation event, but those that were there seemed to agree that the current walk in centre is a convenient and accessible way of obtaining services, but that these could potentially be delivered by the person's GP or community pharmacy. 


Good news for pharmacy you may think? 

Well, yes and no, because although the public welcomed pharmacy's contribution, anything other than the supply function simply wasn't really understood and more shockingly, the entire audience was unaware that community pharmacies these days have private consultation rooms!

We all have some real work to do here; the LPC and contractors...we simply must raise our game here...for pharmacy the consultation room is a given now, but why are the public so unaware?