Category: News

SDLP deputy leader Nichola Mallon has visited her local community pharmacy to highlight the importance of community pharmacies within the SDLP’s plan to support the health system in the new Assembly mandate.

The North Belfast Assembly candidate was speaking following a visit to Teagues Pharmacy on the Antrim Road in which she said that the SDLP will look to build upon the strong links that exist between community pharmacies and their surrounding communities.

Nichola Mallon supported calls from the sector for workforce planning to be prioritised in the next Assembly mandate to reduce staff shortages and ensure that pharmacy remains an attractive sector to enter and remain in. Staff at the community pharmacy also told the former minister of the need for the incoming Executive to make the most of the solutions and opportunities presented by the sector in the midst of lengthy waiting list crisis and overstretched emergency care.

North Belfast Assembly candidate, Nichola Mallon said:

“The community pharmacists here at Teagues Pharmacy are a real testament to the dedication and hard work of the entire community pharmacy workforce here in the heart of North Belfast. The last number of years have been fraught with challenges, most recently the COVID-19 pandemic, and yet our community pharmacists stood up to meet increased demands and supported our communities every step of the way.

“Reforming our health service will inevitably play a prominent role in the next Assembly mandate, so it was both timely and worthwhile to hear from people, like Conor and his team, on how we can get the best for both our community pharmacists and our communities. If we want to build a health service that works for communities here in North Belfast into the future, then we need to work with our frontline health workers in the new mandate and build a sustainably resourced and integrated community pharmacy sector.”

Conor McAreavey of Teagues Pharmacy, Antrim Road said:

“Today was a welcome opportunity to speak with the SDLP’s Assembly leader and highlight the everyday role played by community pharmacies here in North Belfast. Whether it is through the dispensing of medicines to meet increased footfall or the introduction of new pilot services, our teams have adapted to the changing needs of our patients. In recognising the hard work of our teams and their expanded role, we now need to be looking to attract, recruit and retain community pharmacists.  

“The new Assembly mandate also presents an opportunity to turn transformation plans into action and ensure that we have a sustainable health service for the foreseeable future. Community pharmacy has identified a range of different solutions and stands ready to support the transition from hospital-focused care to community-focused care.”

UUP leader Doug Beattie has visited a local Portadown community pharmacy to discuss the role of the sector as a key part of the party’s vision for the health service in the next Assembly mandate.

Speaking to pharmacy staff at Gordons Chemists in Portadown, Doug Beattie discussed his party’s plans to stabilise the workforce, as set out in the UUP’s ‘Build a Better Northern Ireland’ election manifesto. The party’s calls to deliver a workforce plan to reduce staffing shortages resonated with General Manger, John Clark who spoke of the need to address the continuing staffing shortfall in community pharmacy.

Transformation of the health service was also among the talking points as community pharmacies across the Upper Bann constituency and throughout Northern Ireland continue to play an essential role in community-based care. Recent months have seen community pharmacies making the most of their accessibility to deliver over 330,000 COVID-19 vaccinations and over one million lateral flow testing kits while maintaining, on average, one million dispensing episodes each week in Northern Ireland.

UUP leader Doug Beattie said:

“It was great to visit the pharmacy team today who continue to play an essential role providing the community with accessible health care. As patients from Portadown and the surrounding area have increasingly come to depend on their local community pharmacist, it was important to hear how staff have adapted and stood-up services to meet greater demand. Community pharmacy is an essential part of our health service with so much opportunity to unlock as we look ahead to rebuilding.

“Our election manifesto sets out our commitment to supporting the health service for the next five years. We want to take steps to safeguard our health service into the future, through supporting our workforce and addressing long-term staffing pressures. Our community pharmacists, as frontline healthcare workers, have gone above and beyond what was expected of them and will continue to play an important role.”

General Manger of Gordons Chemists, John Clark said:

“Ahead of the election, today was an opportunity for us to highlight the role of community pharmacy up to this point and in the new Assembly mandate. As well as delivering our core services, like the dispensing of medicines, we also provide a range of additional services such as COVID-19 vaccination and Pharmacy First as part of our expanded role in primary care. Our message is that community pharmacy is a solutions provider, and if given the support, can play a focal role in the rebuilding of our health service in the short, medium, and long-term.

“It was encouraging to hear the UUP’s vision for the health service and the focus it places on workforce planning and healthcare transformation. As community pharmacists, we understand the needs of our patients and tirelessly step up to meet their demands. As attention turns to how we can improve our health service, community pharmacy will provide an important contribution to a new, shared healthcare model.”

The COVID-19 spring booster vaccination programme will get under way in Northern Ireland in the coming days, so the Public Health Agency (PHA) is urging those eligible to get boosted.

People aged 75 years and over, residents in care homes for older people, and those aged 12 years and over with weakened immune systems will be offered a spring booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. It is advised that the spring booster should be offered around six months after an individual received their first booster dose.

Dr Jillian Johnston, Joint Interim Assistant Director in Health Protection at the PHA, said: “COVID-19 is more serious in older people and those with a weakened immune system. Protection from the vaccine may be lower and may decline more quickly in these people.

“Although vaccines are expected to provide good protection against severe COVID-19 disease, protection against mild infection with the Omicron variant seems to decline quickly, even after a booster dose, so the additional spring booster will help address this.

“This spring booster is being offered as a precaution to those at extremely high risk, most of whom received their first booster around six months ago. If the number of infections increases over the summer, this booster should help to reduce your risk of being admitted to hospital with COVID-19.”

Spring booster programme arrangements

  • Care Homes: the spring booster programme will begin in care homes from the start of April and community pharmacies will complete this element of the programme. 
     
  • Over 75s: GPs will invite all their eligible patients aged 75 years or older in for vaccination. In addition to being invited by their own GP to receive a spring booster, individuals aged over 75 will have the option to receive their spring booster vaccination via a participating community pharmacy or at a HSC Trust-led vaccination clinic.
     
  • Vaccination centres: Trusts will continue to run some vaccination centres as well as mobile clinics/pop-up clinics.
     
  • Housebound patients: Trusts (through District Nursing Teams) will continue to vaccinate the eligible housebound patients.
     
  • Immunosuppressed individuals are also eligible for the spring booster but it is likely that many of these individuals will have only recently received their booster dose, 3 months after they had received a 3rd primary dose. These individuals should be offered the booster during the spring campaign providing there is at least three months from the previous dose. Trust clinicians should write to advise their patients of this. GPs should provide a “safety net” service. Practices can offer vaccination to any of their registered patients who meet the criteria as immunosuppressed at patient request or by practice identification.

“COVID-19 has not gone away and we would urge those eligible to come forward for the spring booster when invited,” added Dr Johnston.

Further info at www.pha.site/springbooster.

Find out more on how to get your booster vaccination at www.nidirect.gov.uk/covid-vaccine.   Further information

In relation to the spring booster dose, JCVI have advised that this should be offered around six months after an individual received their first booster dose.  JCVI have advised that the spring booster dose should be offered to:

The number of COVID-19 vaccine boosters and third doses administered in Northern Ireland has passed the one million mark.

The milestone has been welcomed by Patricia Donnelly, head of Northern Ireland’s vaccination programme.

She said: “GPs, community pharmacists and Trusts have all worked extremely hard to roll out the booster campaign, with the period in the run up to Christmas particularly busy.

“They all deserve our heartfelt thanks. Because of the vaccines, we now have much greater protection against the virus.

“All those involved in the vaccination programme are genuine history makers.”

Booster doses have been provided from the latter stages of last year, supplementing the two primary doses already received.

At the same time, a third primary dose was offered to people with a severely weakened immune system, which was then followed by a booster three months after their third primary dose.

The latest tallies on Northern Ireland’s vaccination dashboard include 979,548 boosters and 20,620 third doses.

Patricia continued: “While demand for vaccines is no longer at levels from the peak of the campaign, people are still coming forward on a daily basis for boosters and first and second doses.

“It’s still not too late to get these jabs. Please do so – and benefit from the really important protection they bring.” 

The one million landmark has been reached with the Spring booster campaign imminent. In line with UK-wide guidance set by the JCVI, the Spring campaign will offer an additional booster dose to: anyone who is aged 75 or over; care home residents; and anyone aged 12 and over who has a severely weakened immune system. Further details can be found on NI Direct: www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/get-covid-19-vaccination-and-booster-northern-ireland

Health Minister Robin Swann has today announced an investment of £8million into community pharmacy to support the phased introduction of a new medicines adherence service in Northern Ireland.

This investment follows extensive discussions between Department of Health, the Health and Social Care Board (HSCB) and Community Pharmacy NI, the representative body for community pharmacy.

This service will help to ensure that people at high risk of harm from poor adherence to their medication will receive tailored support to assist them to take their medicines on time and as prescribed. The service will be introduced in phases over the coming months to allow a standard approach for new patients who need access to additional support. Phase one will involve patients being discharged from hospital with complex needs relating to their medication

Speaking during a visit to Dundela Pharmacy, Minister Swann said: “I am delighted to be able to announce this further additional investment of £8m into community pharmacy. This funding will immediately benefit those patients being discharged from hospital with complex medication needs.”

The Health Minister continued: “I am very pleased to also give my support to an agreed three year community pharmacy commissioning plan for 2022-25 which, subject to funding being in place, will provide a coherent structure for the provision of community pharmacy services over the next 36 months. The 2022-25 commissioning plan continues to build on the successful commissioning agreements that have been in place over the last two years and ensures that community pharmacies will continue to provide a number of additional services to meet the needs of patients.”

L-R David McCrea and Lesa McLoughlin Community Pharmacists, Dundela Pharmacy, Health Minister Robin Swann and Cathy Harrison, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer.

Cathy Harrison, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer at the Department of Health said: “Community pharmacies provide highly trusted and accessible services involving the safe supply of medicines, vaccines and pharmaceutical advice. Today’s announcement will help ensure that services can be developed to provide tailored support to people who need help to take their medicines safely, on time and as prescribed.”

Joe Brogan, Head of Pharmacy and Medicines Management at the Health and Social Care Board said: “Community pharmacies have provided much needed additional services during the response to COVID-19. We very much value how pharmacy staff responded to the needs of our communities and recognise the challenges that were faced. Learning from this, we have jointly developed a 3-year commissioning plan which prioritises and seeks to extend clinical services from community pharmacies.”

Gerard Greene, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy Northern Ireland said: “This is a welcome and much needed investment in community pharmacy. It comes after two years of a pandemic, where we have clearly seen how important community pharmacy is in supporting patients and enabling them to access a vital health service. The Minister’s commitment to a new three year commissioning plan gives us more certainty and will mean we can now develop and plan new services. 

“In addition, the investment in the medicines adherence service will allow community pharmacists to work directly with hospitals to ensure that patients who are being discharged and in need of specialised medicine support, can now receive that from their local pharmacy. This will have a positive impact in getting patients out of hospital more quickly and will mean they can be cared for at home.”

The representative body for community pharmacy owners across Northern Ireland has said that the work of pharmacy teams made a seismic difference to the Covid-19 response over the past two years.

Community Pharmacy NI has hailed the resilience and adaptability of the workforce as over 330,000 Covid-19 vaccines have been delivered including almost150,000 booster vaccines.

Pharmacies also increased provisions with the Pharmacy First service by which  patients could get medical advice and treatment directly from their local pharmacies for a number of everyday health conditions. The Emergency Supply of Medicines service was also introduced which meant patients could access vital medicines when they were unable to obtain a prescription.

In more recent times, community pharmacies became the leading provider of Lateral Flow Tests with over one million kits delivered to the public across Northern Ireland.

Community pharmacies also continued to provide their central role of the safe supply of medicines to patients with over one million dispensing episodes weekly.

Community Pharmacy NI are calling on the Department of Health to continue to recognise the vast contribution of the community pharmacy network over the past two years and accelerate  workforce planning and investment strategies that will ensure that this work can continue and be developed further in the post-pandemic era.

Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy NI, Gerard Greene said:

The last two years has demonstrated that community pharmacy can go beyond day-to-day services to support the changing health and wellbeing needs of our population. Through the flexibility and adaptability of the sector, we have seen it taking on increased patient demands and providing additional services. I think it is hugely important that the Department of Health seeks to build upon the success to date and ensures that community pharmacy remains an integral part of the health and social care family going forward.

The community pharmacy network has worked tremendously hard to ensure that patients have been able to continue to receive services, uninterrupted by the pressures of the pandemic. Staff have shown flexibility and adaptability under extreme pressure.

Community pharmacy needs to be commissioned in a way that reflects increased responsibilities and demands. Emerging from the pandemic, more and more patients will look to their local community pharmacist first, as they have done during the last two years. It is imperative that we support community pharmacies to continue vital work in our communities.

Now is the time to maximize on the possibilities that the Covid-19 pandemic has presented and ensure that community pharmacy is utilized effectively and inclusively in transformation of the health service. We have seen the many benefits – accessibility, adaptability, community-facing care, as well as a range of new and additional services – I hope we are able to continue with this in the time ahead.