Healthcare professionals will be consulted on whether a community pharmacy scheme has helped patients get the best out of new medicine.

The New Medicine Service is an NHS community pharmacy scheme to assist patients in understanding and maximising the use of new medicines. The scheme, which will run until March next year, is being tested and evaluated by a team from the University of Nottingham, along with Warwick Business School and the University College London.

Under the scheme, people in pharmacy jobs would help those with long term conditions to solve any problems they had with new medication.

Dr Matthew Boyd, who is leading the study with Professor Rachel Elliott, said: "The New Medicine Service is a great opportunity to formalise the excellent work community pharmacists already do every day supporting patients with their medicines.

"This study intends to provide an evidence base for how pharmacists can support patients with their new medicines. It is hoped it will inform the development of more pharmacy services in the future."

A report will be handed to the Department of Health in summer next year and the results will influence a government-level decision on whether the service should continue.

Copyright Press Association 2012

The amount of errors made in prescribing drugs could be reduced by inviting pharmacists into GP practices to conduct regular medicine reviews, according to research.

The IT-based intervention scheme was found to be cheap and easy to put in place and cost just £75 for each error avoided after six months, the report published online by The Lancet said.

People in pharmacist jobs were invited to analyse prescribing errors at GP practices in the pharmacist-led, information technology-based intervention (Pincer). They then agreed action plans and provided simple feedback on patient records.

Professor Tony Avery from the Division of Primary Care at the University of Nottingham`s Medical School led the study. The trial involved 72 general practices in the UK with a combined patient list of 480,942.

The study`s authors said: "Pincer offers an effective method for reducing a range of medication errors in general practice. An essential prerequisite is the use of electronic health records, which effectively reduces errors.

"The intervention that we have developed will be suitable for implementation in the increasing number of countries where clinical records are now computerised and where the roles of pharmacists to monitor proactively for clinically important medication errors can be extended"

Copyright Press Association 2012

Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have been given guidance on how to deal with complicated issues relating to consent, confidentiality and keeping clear sexual boundaries.

The new guidance to those in pharmacy jobs is included in four new documents from the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). It will help the pharmacy professionals meet standards relating to ethics, performance and conduct.

Pharmacists are encouraged to take action if they believe patients are at risk, while they are also told where to go if they want to raise concerns. The guidance on consent gives pharmacists tips on how to assess a patient`s capacity to give consent, while advice on how to avoid breaching sexual boundaries and the use of chaperones is also included.

GPhC chief executive Duncan Rudkin said pharmacists often find themselves in challenging ethical situations.

Mr Rudkin said: "This guidance has been developed in response to feedback from our registrants and others that further advice on these topics would be useful. We would urge all registrants to read these new publications, so they know what to do if they face these issues in their practice.

"Our thanks go to everyone who helped us to develop the guidance by sharing their comments during our `taking a view` exercise last year. We also received suggestions for other guidance that may be useful, which we are now exploring."

Copyright Press Association 2012

Diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease could be revolutionised on the NHS if it embraces genetic testing, the government`s genetics adviser has claimed.

Prof Sir John Bell said patients would pay the price if the NHS misses out on genetics, when he presented a report on how advances in the field should be prepared for. Prof Bell has long advocated the adoption of genetic tools, while he has called on ministers to have current and new staff in NHS jobs trained in genetics.

Plans to speed up the introduction of genetic cancer tests have been announced by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.

A problem in modern medicine is that the definitions of some diseases are too broad.

"Breast cancer has always been defined because it is a tumour in the breast," said Prof Bell, speaking to the BBC. "But if you look at the molecular detail of those cancers, some are much more similar to ovarian cancers than they are to other breast cancers, in molecular terms and in terms of their response to therapy."

The report states that cancer drugs are generally effective in less than a third of patients who take them. But the theory is that by analysing which genes are active inside a tumour, picking the correct treatment will be made possible.

Copyright Press Association 2012