Category: News

A new campaign focusing on encouraging sun safe behaviours and raising awareness of the health impacts of over-exposure to UV radiation has been launched in community pharmacies across Northern Ireland.

‘Care in the Sun’ is running throughout April and May as part of the Living Well service. Living Well is offered in 500 pharmacies across Northern Ireland and provides information and advice on public health issues. It is delivered in partnership by the Public Health Agency (PHA), Community Pharmacy NI (CPNI), and the Department of Health (DoH).

Frances Dowds, Health Improvement Manager at the PHA, said: “Sunlight helps provide our bodies with vitamin D, supports bone health, lowers blood pressure, helps prevent disease and can promote good mental health. However, over-exposure to UV radiation from either the sun and/or sunbeds can damage skin, and we know that the majority of skin cancers are caused by this. 

“Skin cancer is the most common cancer in Northern Ireland and accounts for over 31% of all cancers diagnosed. Over 4,000 people develop skin cancer each year and almost 1 in 10 of these are malignant melanoma, the most serious form. Malignant melanoma rates have risen over the past 40 years from an average of around 100 cases per year in the mid-1980s, to over 400 in recent years.

“There is no safe limit for exposure to UV radiation from sunbeds. Research shows people who have used a sunbed at least once at any stage in their life have a 20% higher risk of developing melanoma skin cancer than people who have never used a sunbed.

“The majority of all skin cancers are preventable by undertaking simple sun protection measures.”

Top tips for protecting your skin from cancer

• Check when you are most at risk from UV radiation. Levels of UV radiation are highest in Northern Ireland between March and October – even when it is cool or overcast.

• If you are going outdoors, check what the UV index will be throughout the day. You can check daily and hourly UV index forecasts via most weather apps on your mobile phone.
• Help protect your skin when the UV index is 3 or more by following this guidance:

1. Stay in the shade between 11.00am and 3.00pm, when UV rays are strongest.
2. Cover up with suitable clothing.
3. Wear a broad brimmed hat and sunglasses with 100% UV protection.
4. Buy sunglasses that have a CE mark or carry British Standard BS EN ISO 12312-1.
5. Use sunscreen on exposed skin; an SPF of at least 30 and UVA 4/5 stars as recommended by the Department of Health and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
6. Babies under six months should stay out of direct sunlight. If exposure to sunlight is unavoidable, apply a small amount of high protection sunscreen to exposed areas, such as the cheeks and back of the hands. For children over six months choose SPF 30 or SPF 50 to protect against UVB rays and minimum UVA 4 stars. Higher SPF will give more protection.
7. Avoid sunburn by never allowing your skin to go pink or red in the sun. Sunburn doesn’t have to be raw, peeling or blistering skin; for people with darker skin, it might feel tender, irritated or itchy.
8. Choose and use the correct amount of sunscreen – an adult needs six teaspoons distributed evenly on the body with an SPF of at least 30 and UVA 4 or 5 stars.
9. Avoid sunbeds – they can cause over exposure to UV radiation.
10. Check your skin at least once a month, be aware of any changes, and speak to your GP if you notice any mole changes, new moles or abnormal skin changes.

Garth Newberry, a Community Pharmacist in Carryduff, said: “Community pharmacists regularly help patients with a range of common health concerns associated with ‘Care in the sun’ such as skin protection, treatment for sun exposure and mole concerns. This campaign is an opportunity for you to chat to your local pharmacist or pharmacy team about how to look after your skin, how to stay safe in the sun, talk about medication that could increase your skin’s sensitivity to sunlight and also to raise any concerns, especially in relation to prevention and early detection of skin cancer.”  

Naomi Thompson, Health Improvement Manager at Cancer Focus NI, said: “It’s important to remember the care in the sun messages both at home and abroad. Everyone is at risk of UV damage, but certain groups are particularly at risk including babies and children, those with fair hair and skin, outdoor workers and people with a family history of skin cancer. Just one episode of sunburn, especially in childhood, can double the lifetime risk of malignant melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer.”

The Solar UV Index shows how much solar radiation is reaching us from the sun and how careful we need to be. UV levels vary with the seasons and time of day, but when the UV index is three or above we need to protect our skin and eyes, so it is important to know what the UV index is going to be throughout the day.

When choosing sunscreen, it is important to get one that offers protection against both UVA and UVB rays which can speed up skin ageing, cause sunburn and increase the risk of developing skin cancer. To reduce your exposure to UVB rays, your sunscreen should be at least SPF 30, and make sure it has a UVA rating of 4 or 5 stars.

How you apply your sunscreen also affects how well it protects you, but a lot of people do not apply enough sunscreen. To maximise protection against UV damage, at least six full teaspoonfuls of sunscreen lotion are needed for an all over body application for an average adult.

You should use:

• more than half a teaspoon of sunscreen to each arm;
• over half a teaspoon for the face and neck, including the ears;
• just over one teaspoon for the front of your body;
• just over one teaspoon for the back of your body;
• just over one teaspoon for each leg.

To give a good level of protection, sunscreen needs to be applied generously 30 minutes before you go outdoors, then reapplied every two hours, or more frequently after swimming, sweating, or towelling the skin.

Protecting skin from damage is really important but it’s equally important to check your skin for damage. You should check your skin at least once a month. Be aware of any changes, new moles or abnormal skin changes. Early detection and treatment of skin cancer can dramatically improve outcomes. Most cases of skin cancer are treatable, especially when caught early. Ask your pharmacist for advice if you are taking any medication that affects your skins sensitivity to sunlight such as doxycycline. 

Where to get more information

You can find out what the daily UV index is for your area through the weather app on your smartphone or by downloading the Met Office app.

To find out more about taking care in the sun, visit www.careinthesun.org    

If you are concerned about any aspect of cancer, you can call Cancer Focus NI’s Nurseline on 0800 783 3339 (Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9am–1pm) to talk about any cancer-related issue or to find out more about the charity’s cancer support services.

Almost 90% of pharmacies were unable to pay their wholesaler bill in January

Community Pharmacy Northern Ireland (CPNI) told the Assembly Health Committee today, 26 February 2026, that unless the Health Minister steps in to stabilise community pharmacy funding, the security of medicine supply to patients in Northern Ireland cannot be guaranteed.

Having raised an alert on shortages and potential rationing of some well-known painkillers and blood thinning medicines in Northern Ireland earlier this month, MLAs invited community pharmacy representatives to provide an update on the situation.

Gerard Greene, Chief Executive of CPNI said,

“Medicine supply difficulties are presenting disproportionate challenges for community pharmacies and patients in Northern Ireland, compared to other parts of the UK. We met with the Health Minister over a month ago to raise the alarm on this situation, and to date, the actions recommended by CPNI have not been accepted.”

Mr Greene highlighted that global medicine shortages are hitting harder in Northern Ireland due to deeper, systemic funding issues which are affecting pharmacies’ ability to pay wholesalers. Pharmacy contractors are using their own money to bridge a growing gap in funding.

MLAs were advised that 367 of 414 pharmacies supplied by a major wholesaler were unable to pay their wholesaler bill in January, risking medicine supply to patients.

Mr Greene continued,

“For years, we have been highlighting that the Department’s baseline funding level for community pharmacy is wrong. The current medicine supply issue has now revealed the further cracks in a dangerously fragile model. Significant disruption to the supply of medicines to patients in Northern Ireland is inevitable as a direct consequence of a failure by the Department to address this.

“The Department of Health has repeatedly pushed back on calls to review the funding model for Community Pharmacy which it imposed over 15 years ago without negotiation then or since. And worryingly, the Department’s own calculations have been exposed as being incorrect several times over the past year.

“We are calling for negotiations on a new community pharmacy contract to begin as a matter of urgency. As a temporary – but immediate – solution to this, we are calling on the Minister to suspend the clawback that the Department deducts from our drug payments. We are not looking for more money; we’re asking for this funding to be left in the system so that we can pay our monthly medicine wholesaler bills.”

Mr Greene also described the impact of a volatile medicines supply chain being beyond the control of community pharmacies. The current payment model is simply not keeping pace with the rapidly rising drug cost prices and therefore our funding deficit is widening. As a result, pharmacies are increasingly not able to pay their medicine wholesalers’ bills and the extent of that was laid bare at the Health Committee today. Wholesalers then stop supply and this further affects the availability of medicines for patients.

Given the issues with getting paid and the drug tariff arrangements, Mr Greene stated that several wholesalers have stopped supplying Northern Ireland pharmacies or left the market totally, further reducing competition and in turn pushing wholesale medicine prices up to a greater extent here compared to the rest of the UK.

Gerard Greene said, “The reality of this situation is that pharmacies are left scrambling around to try and secure medicines for their patients. It’s patently wrong, it is increasingly unsafe and it is not sustainable. Alongside the Department of Health, we have a duty to maintain the safe and secure supply of medicine for the public. This is about paying the bills and getting medicines for our patients.

“The Minister needs to step in urgently to stabilise and fund community pharmacies properly, to secure safe medicine supplies, and to work with UK Government to prioritise and protect medicine stocks for patients in Northern Ireland, as was done for Brexit and the pandemic.”

Painkiller supply issue highlights fundamental risk to NI medicines security

Community Pharmacy NI has warned of an imminent risk to the supply of essential medicines in Northern Ireland.

Briefing MLAs at an All-Party Group meeting at Stormont on Tuesday 3 February, representatives from CPNI advised of a growing shortage of many common medicines including the painkiller, co-codamol 30/500mg* which is likely to extend for several months.

In Northern Ireland, approximately 50,000 packs, equating to around 5 million tablets of co-codamol are dispensed each month to a population of fewer than two million people. 

As things stand, community pharmacies may be forced to ration supplies of medicines related to shortages, potentially affecting on average 50 to 100 patients per pharmacy so that people have some supply and do not run out of vital medicines.

Community Pharmacy NI highlighted that this is not an isolated example with another shortage affecting specific low-dose, dissolvable aspirin used primarily as an anti-platelet medicine for patients at risk of stroke or heart attack.

When questioned by MLAs on the potential impact for Northern Ireland, Community Pharmacy NI confirmed that community pharmacies here are typically trying to source stock for over 100 common medicine lines in short supply.

While the current shortages are driven by global manufacturing and supply chain constraints, the organisation stressed that these issues represent significant medicines security and supply concerns in Northern Ireland with potentially direct implications for patient safety and consequential pressures for GPs, out-of-hours services and other parts of the health system.

Gerard Greene, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy NI said,

“Today’s discussion made clear that community pharmacy in Northern Ireland is operating under sustained and increasing pressure. The gap between medicine costs and reimbursement is widening, and pharmacies here are also struggling to pay medicine wholesaler bills and receive sufficient supply of many common medicines to meet patient need.

“The supply issue sees community pharmacies working intensively to source medicines, often under severe constraints. We have pharmacy teams reporting back to us daily that they are seeing growing numbers of other commonly prescribed medicines also in short supply.  All of this is taking place while pharmacy teams try to support patients who are understandably keen to get the medicines they need.

“We are appealing to the public to be patient with pharmacy teams as they try to source medicines, and we are appealing once again to the Minister to again prioritise support for the sector so that pharmacies can pay medicine wholesalers. This does not involve finding new funding for the sector, but rather to remove clawback which reduced the payments pharmacies received last year for medicines dispensed by £23m.

“The stability of the medicines supply chain, while it is a UK wide issue, is of particular concern to us locally because of Northern Ireland’s small market and additional logistical costs compared to GB.

“We have raised these concerns with the Health Minister and are calling on the Minister and the Northern Ireland Executive to work with the UK Government to strengthen medicines security and supply for Northern Ireland, including ensuring that medicine stock is appropriately ring-fenced, so patients continue to receive the medicines they rely on.

“If this is not addressed, there is a real risk that Northern Ireland will become a lower-priority market for medicine wholesalers, with serious implications for patient safety, continuity of care and the resilience of the wider health system.”

Community Pharmacy NI are advising strongly against patients self-selecting alternative medicines or altering doses without professional guidance, as this may be clinically inappropriate and, in some cases, harmful.

Community Pharmacies in Northern Ireland dispense millions of packs of commonly prescribed medicines each year and even relatively small interruptions in supply can have a rapid and disproportionate impact on patients, pharmacy teams and local health services.

A new campaign – ‘immunise, protect, thrive’ – focussing on the importance of childhood immunisations has been launched in community pharmacies across Northern Ireland.

The campaign aims to raise awareness of the importance of vaccination and highlight that it is the most important thing you can do to protect your child from ill health.

The campaign will run during February and March 2026 and supports the new vaccination schedule changes which commenced on 1 January 2026.

Living Well is offered in over 500 pharmacies across Northern Ireland and provides information and advice on public health issues. It is delivered in partnership with the Public Health Agency (PHA), Community Pharmacy NI (CPNI), and the Department of Health (DoH).

Geraldine Mallon, Immunisation Project Operations Manager at the PHA, said: “After clean water, vaccination is the most effective public health intervention in the world for saving lives, promoting good health and preventing serious illness.

“During 2024 and 2025, Northern Ireland saw the return of measles cases, increasing the risk of serious infection for children who had missed their vaccines. 

Other serious childhood infectious diseases such as polio or diphtheria may rarely be heard of these days. However, they can return from parts of the world where they still occur if vaccination rates continue to decrease as they have been over the last few years. 

“It is really important vaccine uptake remains high in Northern Ireland to help prevent many of these serious diseases returning. If this happens, children who are not vaccinated will be at risk of these infections and potentially life-changing complications – even death.”

The PHA strongly recommends babies and children receive all their vaccinations according to the routine childhood immunisation schedule, which has recently been updated to adjust the timing of vaccines for the best protection. In addition, the schedule has been enhanced with the varicella (chickenpox) vaccine, now available in the form of the combined vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV).

This will be the first time in Northern Ireland that children will be offered protection against chickenpox for free through the childhood programme. Immunisation is the safest and most effective way of helping to protect our children against serious diseases.

Siobhan McNulty, Community Pharmacist and owner of Melvin Pharmacy in Garrison, Co Fermanagh, said: “Community pharmacists are trusted healthcare professionals and can provide information, advice and reassurance to parents and guardians on childhood immunisation. Often the first point of contact for many families’ healthcare needs, community pharmacists are ideally positioned to highlight the important role vaccinations play in protecting our children and to also dispel myths and misconceptions regarding immunisations.”

As with other childhood immunisations, parents will be contacted by their GP surgery to arrange an appointment if their child is eligible.

If you are unsure if your child is up to date with vaccinations, the easiest way to check is to look at your child’s red book or speak to your health visitor or GP surgery.

If your child has missed a vaccination, please contact your GP practice to book an appointment as soon as you can to make sure they have maximum protection against disease.

For more information on childhood immunisations and eligibility for the MMRV see www.nidirect.gov.uk/childhood-immunisation

The Health Minister has launched the Community Pharmacy Palliative Care Network during a visit to McCoubrey’s Chemist in north Belfast.

The Palliative Care Network will operate in around 60 community pharmacies across Northern Ireland and will ensure patients have timely access to palliative care medicines and specialist advice. It will lead to better patient care at the end of life.

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said: “The launch of the Community Pharmacy Palliative Care Network marks an important step in strengthening palliative care across Northern Ireland. The Network, which was referenced in our Winter Preparedness Plan, will ensure that patients and their families receive timely, compassionate support at one of the most difficult times in life.

“I want to acknowledge the dedication of our community pharmacists, Community Pharmacy Northern Ireland (CPNI) and officials in my Department, for working together to make this service a reality.

“Your commitment and collaboration demonstrates the power of partnership in delivering better care for our communities, as well as helping to ease pressures on our hospitals during this busy season.”

The Department of Health has collaborated with Community Pharmacy NI (CPNI) to design and implement the new Community Pharmacy Palliative Care Network. 

Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy NI Gerard Greene said: “Community Pharmacies play a vital role in supporting patients and their families at what can be a very difficult end of life stage. The launch of the Palliative Care Network provides a further level of support ensuring timely access to medicines and specialist advice will be available.”

The Network further highlights the Minister’s commitment to ‘shift left’, with more emphasis being placed on Community Pharmacies in the new Neighbourhood Model of Care, as referenced in the Reset Plan. 

The Department of Health is also encouraging all pharmacies to sign up to the Daffodil Standards, which is a joint initiative between the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and Marie Curie, supported by Pharmacy Forum NI, and Community Pharmacy NI. They provide a framework for community pharmacies to build on the high standard of care they already provide to palliative care patients and their families.