Category: News

A new campaign focussing on the importance and benefits of physical activity as we get older has been launched in pharmacies across Northern Ireland.

‘Live Longer and Stronger Ageing Well’ is running in community pharmacies throughout February and March as part of the Living Well service. It highlights how keeping active helps you stay healthy and age well.

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).

“We decided to run this campaign as data indicates that 43% of adults aged 50 or over in Northern Ireland did not meet the UK recommendations of doing at least 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise,” Colette Brolly, the PHA’s lead on physical activity, said.

Data also shows that inactivity rose with age and was higher in those living in deprived areas.

“From 50 years of age we naturally lose muscle strength year on year,” Colette said.

“Being physically active is very important – ageing is inevitable but the pace at which physical changes occur can be slowed or even reversed with regular physical activity. Being physically active can reduce the chances of developing frailty, helping us maintain our independence in later life. 

“Regular physical activity provides a range of physical and mental health benefits including having a healthier heart, lowering the risk of conditions like dementia, Type 2 diabetes, stroke and some cancers.

“It can also make you feel happier, keep your brain sharp, help you age well and prevent falls.”

Local Community Pharmacist Paula Morgan from Orchard Pharmacy in Portadown welcomed the campaign.

“Community pharmacy is an ideal setting to help encourage people to look after their health by engaging in initiatives such as this new campaign,” Paula said.

“Increasing physical activity across the population can have social, environmental and economic benefits for communities and wider society, including cost savings for the health and social care system.

“Pharmacy teams will be promoting the benefits of physical activity and emphasising that it is never too late to be active. We would encourage patients and customers to ask their pharmacist for advice.”

Alison Patterson, Frailty Programme Manager with the PHA, said it is never too late to gain health benefits from taking up physical activity.

“The least active individual stands to gain the most from a small increase in physical activity, but for us all, even relatively small increases in physical activity can contribute to improved health and quality of life,” Alison said.

The UK Chief Medical Officers recommend being active for at least two and a half hours each week and doing activities to improve muscle strength at least twice a week.

Top tips

• Limit the amount of time spent being sedentary, such as lying or sitting.
• Adults should aim to be active daily. A little activity every day can make a big difference.
• Activities that improve strength and balance, such as carrying heavy shopping bags, yoga or doing exercises that use your own body weight, such as push-ups and sit-ups, contribute to healthy ageing, reducing the risk of falls and helping you feel more confident.

As part of the Living Well campaign, community pharmacies across Northern Ireland are providing free information booklets. Further information on the campaign can also be found at www.pha.site/Living-Well  

In addition to the campaign materials, information on ways to get active at www.choosetolivebetter.com

Resources on frailty and advice on how to age well including physical activity, nutrition and more at https://frailtynetwork.hscni.net/

The website www.walkni.com has information on short, medium and long walks across Northern Ireland and categorises these into beach, urban, hillside, woodland and so on so people can check out what types of walks are available close to them or further afield. Notes to the editor

In Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Cohort for the Longitudinal study of Ageing (NICOLA) data indicates that 43% of adults aged 50 or over did not meet the UK recommendations of doing at least 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise. Inactivity rose with age and was higher in those living in deprived areas (Tully et al, 2017). www.qub.ac.uk/sites/NICOLA/ReportsandNewsletters/

On average two people die every week in Northern Ireland as a result of an accident in the home and with this in mind a new pharmacy campaign has been launched with the aim of preventing home accidents.

The ‘Home Accident Prevention’ campaign is running in local community pharmacies as part of the Living Well service. It aims to reduce the number of accidents in the home by raising community awareness of hazards and increasing knowledge on how to eliminate risks. The campaign will run throughout December and January.

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).

Janine Gaston, Home Accident Prevention Lead at the PHA, said: “There are around 17,000 admissions to hospital each year as a result of unintentional injuries. More accidents happen in the home than anywhere else. This can have a significant impact for those affected and their families and can also lead to significant pressure and cost for Health and Social Care, other statutory services and wider society.”

Home accidents can arise from many seemingly harmless sources such as ill-fitting footwear, unsecured blind cords, or from practices and behaviours such as not using appropriate lighting at night.

“The vast majority of accidental injuries and deaths in the home are caused by falls, but serious injury and death can result from a wide range of accidents, such as carbon monoxide poisoning, inhalation of smoke caused by fire, and blind cord strangulation,” Janine said.

“These deaths and injuries can easily be prevented by being aware of the dangers and hazards that are present in the home environment and putting in place interventions to minimise the risks.”

Community pharmacist Orfhlaith McAreavey from McAreavey Pharmacy in Belfast said community pharmacy is the ideal setting to help encourage people to look after their health by engaging in initiatives like the ‘Home Accident Prevention’ campaign.

“Statistics show that children under the age of five, older people and those who are vulnerable are most likely to have an accident at home. The most common causes of home accidents for children under the age of five are poisonings; choking; suffocation and strangulation; falls; burns and scalds; and drowning. Falls are the most common accident for all age groups and young children and older people are especially at risk. We will be getting the message out to our local communities that accidents at home are preventable and there are steps we can take to minimise the risks. Please ask pharmacy staff for further information.”

Local councils also offer a PHA-funded free Home Safety Check to families with children under five, people aged over 65 and those who are vulnerable. People can contact their local council and ask for the Home Safety team. For contact details for councils in Northern Ireland visit www.nidirect.gov.uk/contacts/local-councils-in-northern-ireland

As part of the Living Well campaign, community pharmacies across Northern Ireland are providing free information booklets to members of the public, ‘Home safety –How to spot hazards’. A copy of this leaflet can be found at www.pha.site/Living-Well  

Further information on preventing accidents is also available from NI Direct at www.pha.site/safety-home the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) at www.rospa.com/home-safety/advice and Children Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) at www.capt.org.uk/pages/category/safety-advice-injury-types/

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Three pharmacists registered in Northern Ireland have been recognised for their outstanding contribution to pharmacy and were made Fellows of the Pharmaceutical Society NI at an award ceremony and reception hosted by the leadership body Pharmacy Forum NI at the Belfast Harbour Commissioner’s Office on Thursday 28 October 2022.

Those conferred this year were: Gerard Greene, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy NI; Prof Paul McCarron, Head of School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Ulster University; and Kathryn Turner, Pharmacy Lead at the Strategic Planning and Performance Group of the Department of Health.

Rewarding Excellence is a biennial  event, organised by the Pharmacy Forum NI, where new Fellows are conferred. It is also the occasion for awarding Gold Medals to the top scoring graduates of the University of Ulster and Queen’s University Belfast schools of Pharmacy.

The event was not held in 2020 or 2021, making it a particularly significant night for many of the attendees. Both 2021’s and 2022’s highest achieving graduates were awarded their Gold Medals on the night.

A Fellowship recognises individuals who have exhibited strong leadership and distinction in pharmaceutical science or practice and have promoted the profession to an exceptional degree or have rendered outstanding service to the community at large.

It is the highest honour that can be bestowed upon a registered pharmacist in Northern Ireland. It recognises those individuals who have attained distinction in a particular aspect or aspects of their career.

As Fellowships are based on nominations from members of the profession in NI, it also signifies the esteem in which a nominee is held by his or her peers.

Gerard Greene is recognised by the profession for his dedication to developing community pharmacy as a sustainable, patient focussed, first point of access to the health service whilst meeting many of the challenges faced within the community pharmacy sector over the past ten years.

Following his appointment at UU in 2008, Prof McCarron established a new School of Pharmacy and led it successfully through to full accreditation with the UK pharmacy regulatory bodies in 2014. Additionally, Ulster’s degree programme has been ranked as #1 School of Pharmacy in the UK by The Guardian League table for Pharmacy and Pharmacology for four years. He is also a highly successful researcher, with two patents to his name, and has established two businesses to commercialise his research outputs,

Kathryn Turner has most recently led on the commissioning of community services focussing on the development of clinical services, which has culminated during the pandemic in the delivery of an emergency supply service – Pharmacy First Services – and community vaccination services for both Covid-19 and flu.

There are currently 18 Fellows of the Pharmaceutical Society NI, including the recently appointed cohort, which are drawn from across the profession and represent a variety sectors and career stages.

The Gold Medals were awarded by the Forum to Christine Hartmann and Lydia Combe from Queen’s University Belfast, and Lisa McCaul and Christine Hay from Ulster University. For this and recent years, the Ronnie McMullan Award, which is awarded each year to the pre-registration student who receives the highest mark in the PSNI registration exams, went to Niamh Martin (2021) Ciaran Rooney (2020) and Victoria Kennedy (2019). 

MLAs told 99% of community pharmacies struggling to source medicines

An emergency summit took place at Stormont as MLAs were briefed on expected widespread medicine shortages this winter which are being exacerbated by an underlying funding crisis in community pharmacy.

At the cross-party meeting of MLAs, representatives from the community pharmacy sector revealed that 74% of pharmacists were spending between 1-3 hours per day sourcing medicines, with shortages already on approximately 1000 medicine packs per pharmacy per month.

The committee was briefed by Community Pharmacy NI Chief Executive, Gerard Greene and CPNI Board Director, John Clark who, after issuing a critical supply warning last week, told MLAs that the situation will deteriorate further as the sector’s underlying funding crisis is set to worsen when the Assembly and Executive are formally dissolved on Friday.    

With reported shortages already impacting medicines used to treat health conditions including osteoporosis, high blood pressure, insomnia, mental health and coronary conditions, the sector reports that the very core function of medicines supply is on the verge of collapseand an emergency intervention is needed within days. 

Beyond October, MLAs were told the next Health Minister must take steps to modify Northern Ireland’s Drug Tariff, which is the payment mechanism used to pay pharmacists for the service they provide, so that long-term protections can prevent against future medicine supply pressures.

Gerard Greene, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy NI said:

“As medicine supply pressures deepen and the sense of concern builds, we have taken the opportunity to give elected representatives a full account of the gravity of the situation in terms of the very real health and patient safety concerns that are arising rapidly.

“This is just one symptom of an under-lying problem. Community pharmacy is operating with reduced funding of £20-30 million this year compared to each of the last two years, and that is before rising costs are factored in. The Department’s proposed £5.3 million falls far short of what is needed at this time to enable the service to be maintained and for pharmacies to be able to buy the medicines being prescribed from wholesalers.

“The reality is that the Northern Ireland Drug Tariff, has never been designed to suit the health needs of the local population. Now, medicine prices of many common generic medicines are spiraling out of control and community pharmacy simply cannot be expected to meet these pressures without proper assistance from the Department.

“We remain fully cooperative and hope that an adequate solution can be found but it simply must reflect the real-life financial costs of ever-rising medicine costs.”

• 

Pam Cameron MLA, Chair of the APG on Community Pharmacy said:

“I am deeply alarmed by unfolding funding crisis in pharmacy with more and more medicine lines in short supply for our constituents. The fact that virtually all the community pharmacies in my constituency and across Northern Ireland are already experiencing shortages on hundreds of medicine packs is frankly dangerous and requires immediate attention. We are already staring into a difficult winter, adding medicine shortages on top of this spells disaster.

“We have been working closely with Community Pharmacy NI to explore solutions, and what is clear is that intervention from the Department to stabilise medicine prices is vital. Today we heard that an immediate funding injection, which matches the scale of the problem, is the only way to sustain medicine supply and services this winter. And, as a Group, we would also support making far reaching reforms to the Drugs Tariff so that we are not, yet again, kicking the can down the road.

“I would encourage the Department of Health to re-double its efforts to find a solution to stabilise the sector. Community pharmacies are facing the very real prospect of going to the wall without proper and adequate support in place.”

Supplies of many prescription medicines could run out ‘within weeks’

Community pharmacists have issued a stark warning that shortages and skyrocketing prices of many medicines could result in pharmacies being unable to supply important prescription medicines to patients.

The sector has said it is already seeing the price of buying medicines from wholesalers rise exponentially for many products, with shortages now common across many medicines. It is warning that some patients may not be able to get the medicines they need in the coming weeks. 

If left to deteriorate without Department of Health intervention, community pharmacists have said they will no longer be able to afford to pay for commonly prescribed drugs used to treat health conditions including osteoporosis, high blood pressure, insomnia, mental health and coronary conditions.

Community Pharmacy NI has called on the Department of Health to support community pharmacists to meet the additional price rises and ensure medicine supplies to patients can be maintained.

David McCrea, Community Pharmacist at Dundela Pharmacy, Belfast said:

“As a community pharmacist for over 30 years, I have never witnessed the price of medicines rise this sharply. It is becoming increasingly hard for us to afford to buy the medicines from wholesalers because we are not being paid the full cost of these drugs by the Department.

“I have seen the price of some medicines I need to buy for patients rising fiftyfold, but the Department only paying a fraction of what I am being charged. With the shortages and price increases affecting hundreds of drugs I simply cannot afford to operate under the current model. It is causing financial stress, my credit limits with wholesalers are being breached, and it is simply unsustainable.

“First and foremost, we must now be paid properly for the cost of these medicines by the Department. The bottom line is that we are now facing the situation where we will not be able to afford to supply our patients with essential medicines, within weeks.”

Gerard Greene, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy NI said:

“The skyrocketing price of medicines that we are currently experiencing requires an immediate response from the Department. Community pharmacists cannot afford the increasing prices, particularly when the service is dealing with more patients. In addition to the excessive costs, pharmacy teams are spending hours every day sourcing medicines when they could be using their clinical skills to directly support their patients.

“The community pharmacy network has a responsibility to ensure patient safety at all times, and the threat to the supply of vital medicines is very real. It is incumbent upon us to now warn people of the risk to medicine supply for many drugs and to ask the public to understand that pharmacies are doing their best under impossible circumstances.

“Fundamentally, the source of the issue is that Northern Ireland does not have a workable Drug Tariff for dispensing medicines, and we have made repeated representations to the Department of Health (NI) requesting a change to these arrangements and to get a payment system that reflects the specific circumstances of Northern Ireland.

“It is a fact that community pharmacies regularly pay suppliers more for medicines than they get back from the Department. The critical drug supply issue we are now facing shows that the Department must reform the funding structures for community pharmacy in Northern Ireland. We need an immediate injection of funding to help pharmacists deal with these pricing issues, as well as a properly funded community pharmacy contract going forward”

Notes to editor

An example of some of the drugs that are impacted include:

• Alendronic Acid 70mg tablets (Osteoporosis).
• Lercanidipine tablets (Blood pressure)
• Fluoxetine 20mg capsules (Anti-depressants)
• Esomeprazole tablets (Gastric disorders e.g. ulcers)
• Finasteride tablets (prostate conditions).

A new campaign has been launched in community pharmacies across Northern Ireland raising awareness of the signs and symptoms of cancer to help with early diagnosis.

‘Spot Cancer Early’ is running in community pharmacies as part of the Living Well service. It highlights the role of pharmacy teams in providing advice and support, and encourages people who may be experiencing possible cancer symptoms to talk to their GP.

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).

Dr Louise Herron, Consultant in Service Development and Screening at the PHA, said:

“The earlier cancer is diagnosed, the greater the chances of survival as treatment is more likely to be successful. Changes to your body’s normal processes or unusual, unexplained symptoms can sometimes be an early sign of cancer. It’s important to be body aware and take action if you notice any unusual changes.

“Spotting cancer early could save your life.”

The Living Well campaign, which will run throughout September and October, is supporting the recently launched ‘Spot Cancer Early’ mass media campaign by Cancer Research UK (CRUK), in partnership with the PHA and Northern Ireland Cancer Network (NICaN). The campaign, aimed at the over 50s, urges people to contact their GP practice if they notice a change to their health which is unusual for them or isn’t going away. While cancer can develop at any age, it is much more common in older people. Data indicates that almost 9 in 10 cancer cases in the UK are in people aged 50 or over*.

Living Well also aims to promote healthy changes to help reduce the risk of developing cancer and encourages anyone who needs help to make positive changes to speak to their pharmacist.

Cancer becomes more common as we get older, but whatever your age, it’s always best to listen to your body and act on any concerns. You should contact your GP practice if something doesn’t feel quite right.

“Don’t let fear of what the doctor might find or feelings of embarrassment stop you

from getting checked out.” added Dr Herron.

“We are urging people to get checked early if they have any concerns. It is important for everyone to be aware of warning signs which need to be investigated.”

Kevin McDevitt, Community Pharmacist from Crossin Chemist on the Antrim Road said:

“Community pharmacy is the ideal setting to help encourage people to look after their health by engaging in initiatives such as the ‘Spot Cancer Early’ campaign. Following last year’s Living Well cancer campaign, 36 pharmacies reported patients being diagnosed with cancer, or pre-cancerous cells, requiring emergency consultant care or surgery as a result of their engagement. This underlines the critical role pharmacy teams play in supporting early cancer diagnosis and timely referral.

“As well as advising on how to spot cancer early, pharmacy teams can help support people to make healthy changes that could reduce risk of cancer. The first step is simple, just ask your pharmacist for advice.”

As part of the Living Well campaign, community pharmacies across Northern Ireland are providing free information booklets, Be Cancer Aware – Spotting symptoms and reducing your risk, to members of the public. A copy of this leaflet can be found at www.pha.site/Living-Well  

Below are some things that could be symptoms of cancer.  A fuller list of key signs and signs and symptoms of cancer is available online at www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-symptoms

In many cases these symptoms will turn out to be a sign of something far less serious, but if it is cancer, an early diagnosis means treatment is more likely to be successful.

• Persistent cough or shortness of breath;
• Unusual changes to the size, shape or feel of a breast, including nipple or skin changes;
• A change in bowel habit, such as constipation, looser poo or pooing more often;
• Unexplained bleeding in your pee or poo or unexplained vaginal bleeding, including after sex, between periods or after the menopause;
• An unusual lump or swelling anywhere on your body;
• A new mole or changes to a mole;
• Unexplained weight loss;
• An unexplained pain or ache.

In addition to the campaign materials, further information can be found at www.cruk.org/spot-cancer-early-NI

The website supports the cancer awareness campaign and provides information about cancer signs and symptoms, gives advice on getting an appointment with your GP and includes information on cancer screening.