 ‘Why asthma still kills’ the report of the National Review of Asthma Deaths published in May 2014 called for an end to the complacency around asthma care, in order to save lives. Deficiencies were found in routine asthma care and the report outlines recommendations for patients and all healthcare professional bodies. Although the report was published in 2014 more work still needs to be done. Locally NECS (North East Commisioning Support) have produced a briefing document to inform GP Practices and Pharmacies of some of the recommendations. The report can be downloaded below and the main actions for Pharmacies are listed below. The LPC urges all pharmacist to read it to ensure all steps are taken to reduce asthma deaths. Summary of the Report Recommendations were made with resulting actions for Pharmacies and GP practices. 1: Any patient prescribed more than 12 short-acting reliever inhalers in the previous 12 months needs an urgent review. Pharmacy Action: Pharmacy staff to be vigilant for prescribing/dispensing time intervals and inhaler use. MUR to be offered and patient inhaler techniques to be checked 2: Assessment of inhaler technique to maximise benefit especially if a new device is prescribed. Pharmacy Action: Additional counselling for all inhalers dispensed , technique checks and use of placebos if new device. 3: Non-adherence of preventer inhaled corticosteroids shown to increase risk of poor asthma control Pharmacy Action: Pharmacy staff vigilance in prescribing/dispensing ‘time windows’ of reliever medication and MUR interventions where necessary. 4: Use of combination inhalers should be encouraged. Where LABA bronchodilators are prescribed for patients with asthma, they should be prescribed with an inhaled corticosteroid in a single combination inhaler. Pharmacy Action: Vigilance when dispensing LABA inhalers to patients. If a patient is dispensed LABA monotherapy, the prescriber needs to be contacted asap and informed of the safety concerns and patient advised to make an asthma review at the GP. Conclusion: Collaboration between all Healthcare professionals and patients can dramatically reduce asthma deaths with these 4 recommendations. 
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 With all the drug shortages at the moment pharmacists are finding that they have to get in touch more and more with the GP practices to discuss the need for an alternative and some times the alternatives are also unavailable.
Understandably this has led to frustration with GP's and patients alike. Having discussed the issue with our GP colleagues they have expressed that it would be useful to know what the pharmacy has available when they receive requests for alternative treatments. So as a consequence and In order to minimise disruption to patient care, where possible please let the surgery know availability of suitable alternatives when you contact them. The RPS will be holding a Pharmacy Management Regional Roadshow at the Hilton Hotel, Gateshead on 14th April 2016. Full details of the event and how to book are contained in the flyer below which can also be downloaded by clicking here   The LPC would like to remind pharmacy contractors to ensure that they have completed all their relevant paperwork and submissions needed to comply with their contractual requirements.
Information Governance This needs to be completed by by 31st March 2016 The IG toolkit can be found at https://www.igt.hscic.gov.uk Further information and resources can be found on the PSNC website psnc.org.uk/ig Please note that this year the exemption for having a business continuity plan is longer there so Pharmacies need to ensure one is in place. Further information can be found at http://psnc.org.uk/contract-it/essential-service-clinical-governance/emergency-planning/ Contract Monitoring - Supporting Documents Every Pharmacy needs to submit the following Documentation to the area team.
Please ensure that the NHS England Sub region receive these by 31st March 2016 These can be submitted to [email protected] Quarterly NMS / MUR Data Please ensure you have supplied your quarterly MUR and NMS to the NHS England Sub Region. We have already recently submitted the Q3 2015/16 data (Oct Nov & Dec). Q4 will be due by the 10th April 2016 This data needs to be sent to [email protected] Further Information can be found on on our website. Click here to access it. ***** Please NOTE ***** The LPC understand that some contractors have still not submitted Q3 data. If you have not submitted your data yet please do so ASAP to ensure compliance with your contractual obligations. National Audit There have been no details of a national audit announced this year.  Pharmacies in in Gateshead will have recently received a pack of advertising material for the think Pharmacy First Minor ailments service. This will have included window posters as well as leaflets to promote the service. This is along side an advertising campaign. The new service is steadily taking off in Gateashead however the release of the advertising material along with some forthcomeing media campaign will see demand increase for the service. This has been n the case in South Tyneside where the Think Pharmacy First service firtst launched.
Surgeries and hospitals will be signposting people to use the service also. This is a great opportunity for community pharmacy in Gateshead which has been not had a universal system in place prior to this service. Maks sure all your staff and pharmacists are aware fo the scheme and what conditions and formulary of medicines which can be supplied on service. For full information you can refer to our service page.  The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) have published a news item regarding an issue with the use of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS): One GP system supplier has been working with HSCIC to fix an error. The error meant that some GP practices were able to send Schedule 2/3 Controlled Drug prescriptions via Release 1 (barcoded). Usually such prescriptions should not be transmitted via Release 1.
Locally some of the Surgeries in Durham use this system so prescriptions could end up in the area. If pharmacy teams come across affected prescriptions the solution is:
HSCIC explain affected prescriptions should be some of those Release 1 controlled drug prescriptions dating between 26th February and 2nd March. The relevant GP system implemented a fix today. This issue does not impact EPS Release 2 prescriptions. Identifying other issues with the national EPS systems To ensure you are aware of possible future issues, pharmacy teams can use the following three EPS tools:
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