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

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

Health workers in pharmacy jobs have been given information about the cost of treating diabetes with the publication of new figures.

Around 8.4% of spending on NHS medicines went towards drugs for the condition in 2010/11. This amounts to £725 million, which is a 41% increase on the ┬£513 million spent in 2005/06 when diabetes drugs totalled 6.6% of the overall budget.

The rise in spending on diabetes drugs outstrips the increase of the overall NHS medicines bill from 2005/06 to now.

One in 25 prescriptions handed out by doctors in England are now for diabetes - accounting for 38.3 million items, figures from the NHS Information Centre show.

The increase in volume is 41% when compared to how many drugs were prescribed for diabetes in 2005/06 (27.1 million).

This has been mostly attributed to the prescription of drugs used to treat Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity and unhealthy lifestyles and affects 2.5 million people in the UK, with an additional 850,000 people thought to be undiagnosed.

NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan said: "This information will help people and health professionals see the impact that caring for diabetes has on NHS prescribing; and support the NHS in planning for how to best address the condition moving forward."

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The number of prescriptions dispensed has soared by almost 70% in England over the last 10 years, figures have revealed.

Some 927 million prescriptions were dispensed in 2010, a rise of 68% compared with 2000.

The figures relate to prescriptions dispensed by community pharmacists, suggesting that vacancies for these types of pharmacy jobs could be set to rise during the next few years if demand continues to increase.

An average of 17.8 prescription items were dispensed for every person in England last year at a cost of £169 per head, the figures show.

This was compared to 17.1 at a cost of £165 in 2009 and 11.2 at a cost of ┬£113 in 2000.

The figures released by the NHS Information Centre show that the most commonly dispensed drugs were for cardiovascular conditions, with treatments for high blood pressure and heart failure among the most frequently prescribed.

The most expensive drugs were those prescribed for the central nervous system disorders and diabetes.

NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan said: "Prescribing has a significant impact on peoples` lives; and from a financial point of view is of substantial cost to the NHS."

Copyright © Press Association 2011