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It is universally accepted that pharmacists' skills are underutilised in the healthcare system.
[06-DEC-12]
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Customer driven profiling is a term that those who work for Alliance Boots will be familiar with but the principle should be familiar to everyone.
Insight - Boots Winter 2011 Edition
[20-JAN-12]
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The pre reg training year is a time of crucial importance for aspiring pharmacists. The transition from novice pharmacy graduate through to a registered pharmacist requires hard work, a committed tutor and a supportive learning environment.
Insight - Boots Winter 2011 Edition
[20-JAN-12]
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This feature reports on two developments which could change the way pharmacists' relationship with Alliance Boots will function in the future. If the approach taken in this organisation is successful, then it may be possible to establish similar arrangements with other pharmacy employers.
Insight - Winter 2011 Edition
[20-JAN-12]
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Last year, the PDA supported pharmacists in more than 4,000 situations where members called for assistance; more than 16 new calls for help every working day.
Insight - Boots Winter 2011 Edition
[20-JAN-12]
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John Murphy, General Secretary of the PDA Union, tells pharmacists why it is time to decide how they wish to be represented
Insight - Summer 2011 Boots' Edition
[05-AUG-11]
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Responses to new localised on-call arrangements consultation are due end of March. PDA provides an update.
[13-DEC-10]
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Prior to the establishment of the NHS, if someone went to see a doctor, he would charge a fee for his time and then usually write a prescription, which when presented to a local pharmacist would also result in a dispensing fee having to be paid.
[01-DEC-10]
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It shouldn't surprise me that some senior hospital pharmacy managers continue to explain to hospital pharmacists that they need not join the PDA; 'Don't worry, the Trust's vicarious liability will cover you all' they say.
Insight - Summer 2010 Hospital Edition
[23-JUL-10]
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The supervision arrangements in hospital pharmacy are different from those in community pharmacy and there are some very good reasons for this.
Insight - Summer 2010 Hospital Edition
[23-JUL-10]
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From 2011, membership of the RPSGB will become voluntary leaving pharmacists to effectively vote with their feet.
Insight - Summer 2010 Hospital Edition
[23-JUL-10]
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Why hospitals should be exempted from the Responsible Pharmacist regulations
Insight - Summer 2010 Hospital Edition
[23-JUL-10]
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It shouldn't surprise me that some large employers expend considerable energy in trying to persuade their employees that they need not join the PDA; perhaps they feel threatened by our operations!
Insight - Summer 2010 Community Edition
[17-JUL-10]
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In December 2009, the PDA's Stop Remote Supervision (SRS) campaign went up a gear when we backed a group of RPSGB leadership election candidates. We thank all those PDA members that supported our call to action.
Insight - Summer 2010 Community Edition
[17-JUL-10]
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In its submission to the GPhC regarding the rules that it will be using when it begins to regulate, the PDA was critical of the current investigation processes used by the RPSGB and the hearings of RPSGB Disciplinary Committee calling them "unnecessarily time consuming, cumbersome and costly".
Insight - Summer 2010 Community Edition
[17-JUL-10]
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The use of medication error logs is widespread and encouraged by the PDA as supporting good practice and in line with the principles of clinical governance. These logs are used for a variety of reasons, but ultimately, they are a very good risk management tool.
Insight - Summer 2010 Community Edition
[17-JUL-10]
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New regulations which came into force in April of this year entitle employees with at least 26 weeks' continuous service to ask their employers for unpaid time off work to undertake study or training.
Insight - Summer 2010 Community Edition
[17-JUL-10]
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As membership of the PDA continues to grow, more and more cases are being handled in Scotland and as a consequence, the PDA has now opened an office in Edinburgh.
Insight - Summer 2010 Community Edition
[17-JUL-10]
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In its recent submission to a GPhC consultation on standards the PDA called for the GPhC to register non-pharmacist managers and directors of pharmacy companies in the future so that they could be struck off if their decisions harmed patients.
Insight - Summer 2010 Community Edition
[17-JUL-10]
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Since the Responsible Pharmacist (RP) Regulations came into effect on 1st October 2009, pharmacists have been struggling to come to terms with their new legislative and professional responsibilities.
Insight - Summer 2010 Community Edition
[17-JUL-10]
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The practice that has developed in the last decade for the Police to use the 1968 Medicines Act to prosecute pharmacists once gross negligence manslaughter was excluded was a trend that the PDA was determined to stop, when Elizabeth Lee faced her initial trial in April 2009.
Insight - Summer 2010 Community Edition
[17-JUL-10]
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On 21st of June 2010, just 26 days after the Elizabeth Lee Appeal Court hearing, the Crown Prosecution Service published its dispensing error guidance to prosecutors.
Insight - Summer 2010 Community Edition
[17-JUL-10]
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The PDA Union has been pleased with the progress of its development over the past year, John Murphy, General Secretary announced at the recent AGM in Birmingham on 4th June.
Insight - Summer 2010 Community Edition
[17-JUL-10]
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How can we justify this nonsense as being in the public interest?
Insight - Summer 2010 Community Edition
[17-JUL-10]
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The revenue generated by MURs has become a very important and substantial source of revenue for some large organisations especially with Category M income falling.
Insight - Summer 2010 Community Edition
[17-JUL-10]
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The PDA set up PDA Plus, our PDA member exclusive benefits package, so as to find a
range of services that would save our members money and others that would be highly
valued because they are complementary to pharmacists' professional and work related
needs.
Insight - Summer 2010 Community Edition
[17-JUL-10]
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The PDA recalls numerous meetings going back over several years with senior RPSGB officials, prior to spring 2009, where it tried to push the Society into acting on workplace pressures faced by pharmacists.
Insight - Summer 2010 Community Edition
[17-JUL-10]
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Many of the enquiries that we deal with involve members alleging that they have been unfairly dismissed, however proving this is difficult as the system is very much stacked in the employer's favour.
Insight - Summer 2010 Community Edition
[17-JUL-10]
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In January 2010, Alliance Boots announced that it proposed to cease accrual of benefits under the defined benefits (final salary) pension scheme with benefits from that scheme (reflecting salaries and length of service at the date of closure of the scheme) being transferred to a new employer.
Insight - Summer 2010 Community Edition
[17-JUL-10]
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100 years ago, if you were a pharmacist, then you were likely to be an owner of a pharmacy and consequently in business in your own right as a pharmacist.
Insight - Summer 2010 Community Edition
[17-JUL-10]
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In April 2009 Elizabeth Lee appeared at the Old Bailey to be handed a three month suspended prison sentence and twelve months probation for putting a label intended for prednisolone onto a packet of propranolol instead.
Insight - Summer 2009
[01-JUL-09]
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At the PDA, we seek to extract many pharmacists from difficult situations that they have already found themselves in, however, we believe that it is much better to prevent our members from getting into these situations in the first place.
Insight - Summer 2009
[01-JUL-09]
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We hope that you can support our campaign and we outline our plans;
Insight - Summer 2009
[01-JUL-09]
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What we have described is a formidable and comprehensive plan of action, but it is one to which we are entirely committed. However, if we are to succeed then we will need to call on the support of many pharmacists. So what is it that you can do?
Insight - Summer 2009
[01-JUL-09]
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How will the responsible pharmacist regulations change your life?
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[08-DEC-08]
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When things go wrong some pharmacists naturally look to the trust employing them or to their senior line manager for guidance and assistance; often this will lead them to the trust's solicitor... So what's wrong with that?
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[08-DEC-08]
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How will the responsible pharmacist regulations change your life?
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[08-DEC-08]
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How will the responsible pharmacist regulations change your life?
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
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A recent worrying trend is developing in cases where a prosecution under the Medicines Act 1968 has followed a dispensing error if the police have been unable to find enough evidence to bring a charge of manslaughter.
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
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Historically, pharmacists have been reliant on their salaries from predominantly hospital or community pharmacy employers; however, it is a stated objective of the PDA to develop new roles and new funding streams for individual pharmacists who are providing a new range of services.
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
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Concerns about the proposal to allow a pharmacy to operate in the absence of a pharmacist have
been raised consistently by the PDA, which has always contended that the proposals to let pharmacy staff run a pharmacy, without a pharmacist present, are being pushed through without proper debate...
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
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Over the past few months, the PDA Union has been considering how best to support members who are working as self-employed locums.
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
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From Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
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A remark that costs an employer £64,000 in compensation.
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
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The PDA Union was registered with the Trade Union Certification Officer on 13th May 2008. This feature outlines union business that has taken place since then.
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
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The PDA prides itself on listening to its members through focus groups and surveys. Following on from one strand of discussions, some considerable time has been spent researching the possibility of launching a range of new and additional benefits to PDA members.
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
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The BPC session on "The White Paper: Pharmacy in England: Building on strengths" delivering the future, and its implication for pharmacists" gave a clear overview of the Department of Health's intentions for pharmacy in England.
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
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By government decree, in 2010, the current arrangement in which the RPSGB is both the regulator of pharmacists and their professional leadership body will come to an end.
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
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Most members will be aware that the PDA believes that the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) should not be involved in the provision of individual professional indemnity insurance to pharmacists.
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
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Until April 2007, if you became so mentally or physically ill that it impaired your ability to work, the RPSGB could do nothing about it other than request (and pressurise) you to resign from the Register or to transfer to the non-practicing part (2) of the Register of Pharmacists.
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
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Approximately 60% of the defence work done by the PDA involves dealing with disputes between employers and employees and every day we receive calls from members who have been asked to attend investigation and disciplinary meetings.
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
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The President of the RPSGB, Steve Churton, is asking pharmacists to look to the future in the creation of a new dynamic leadership body. At the BPC he apologised for the Society falling short of members' expectations in the past, but he gave assurances that the Society
is determined to change.
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
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In 2001, the Young Pharmacists' Group initiated the idea of opening up its very own pharmacy. This pharmacy, unlike any other in the UK, was to be run primarily as an experimental practice laboratory that would enable new models of practice to be developed.
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
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For the second year running, the PDA sponsored the biannual BPSA preregistration graduate conference. Over 100 delegates from hospital and community registered to attend this event, held alongside the main British Pharmaceutical Conference (BPC) in Manchester during September.
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
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The PDA has recently been involved in a case where a supermarket manager attempted to discipline a pharmacist because of a professional decision she made where it would have been unsafe to release a member of pharmacy staff to work on the check-out whilst prescriptions were piling up.
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
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The PDA Union has been working tirelessly on behalf of members to counteract some of the extreme pressure that company managers use against pharmacists to drive the achievement of imposed Medicine Use Review targets.
Insight - Autumn/Winter 2008
[01-DEC-08]
