Boots accused of selling quack medicines

From the Guardian (UK):
Boots, the high street chemist, is becoming the country's largest seller of quack medicine, according to Britain's leading scientific expert on alternative therapies.

Talking at the Hay literary festival today, Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine at Exeter University, is to criticise the company for selling alternative medicines, in particular more than 50 homeopathic remedies, which are shown by clinical trials to be no more effective than sugar pills.

Boots, which has 1,500 stores across the UK, stocks 55 homeopathic therapies, 34 of which are sold under the company's own brand.

Ernst accuses the company of breaching ethical guidelines drawn up by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, by failing to tell customers that its homeopathic medicines contain no active ingredients and are ineffective in clinical trials.

"The population at large trusts Boots more than any other pharmacy, but when you look behind the smokescreen, when it comes to alternative medicines, that trust is not justified. You can buy a lot of rubbish, with covert advertising stating things that are overtly wrong. People are spending their money on stuff that doesn't work," he said. "Boots seems to be fast becoming the biggest seller of quack remedies in UK high streets." ...more

UK pharmacists' role to expand

From the Irish Medical Times:
UK proposals mean that patients could be treated for minor ailments in their local pharmacies and could even be screened there for sexually-transmitted diseases.

Pharmacists look set to have an increased role in patient care in England, as the UK Government has announced plans to extend the role of pharmacies there in dealing with minor illnesses. It plans to allow pharmacists to prescribe for such conditions, affording the patient more convenience and what might often amount to faster treatment.
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A government White Paper – ‘Building on Strengths, Delivering the Future’ — details how pharmacists will complement the work of GPs in promoting health, preventing sickness and providing care for patients that is “more personal and responsive to individual needs”.

UK Health Minister Ben Bradshaw stressed that the proposals are not about pharmacists taking over the work of GPs: “It’s about complementing them, taking pressure off GPs and enabling them to spend more time with those patients who really need it.” ...more

The pharmacist will see you now

From the Los Angeles Times:
Twice a week, Stephen Inns sees patients with high blood pressure at his office in a medical practice in southern England. Usually he conducts a few quick tests, asks them how they're doing and adjusts their medicines if necessary.

Inns isn't a doctor; he's a pharmacist.

He is one of fewer than 100 pharmacists across Britain recently given permission to prescribe drugs for patients and provide basic care, without relying on a doctor. The move is part of Britain's attempt to expand its healthcare system by allowing medical professionals such as nurses and pharmacists to treat patients.

Though many countries are slowly loosening the rules on non-doctors giving out medicines, none has given pharmacists as much power as Britain has in its effort to increase services and cut costs in a financially overburdened health system.

In 2006, Britain expanded the powers of pharmacists to treat patients once they took a training course. Though the number of prescribing healthcare professionals other than doctors remains small, their ranks are growing -- and the government hopes they will someday become the norm. ...more

Bogus pharmacist case scrutinised

From BBC News:
The medicines regulator is re-examining how a bogus pharmacist bought large quantities of slimming pills and got funding from a pharmaceutical giant.

Robin Huxley, a salesman from Barnsley, was jailed last month for 14 months for illegally prescribing Xenical.

Roche, which markets Xenical, believed Huxley was a pharmacist running a group of slimming clinics alongside a doctor.

The company says it was simply the victim of crime, but an ex-employee has raised concerns about its practices.

Dr. Ryta Kuzel, the former head of regulatory affairs, said: "I feel strongly Roche's business practices have put people's lives at risk and they haven't been called to account." ...more

Value of first pharmacist prescriber pilots questioned

The concept of pharmacist prescribing is gaining momentum around the world. But it looks like no matter where you go, physicians are resisting the move in this direction.

From Health Care Republic:
Independent prescriber pharmacists are being put in place in GP surgeries, despite GPC protests that the move threatens the future of general practice.

GP practices in Hampshire are among the first in the country to be using independent prescriber pharmacists.

Stephen Inns, a pharmacist and lecturer at the University of Portsmouth, has been running two four-hour hypertension clinics a week since obtaining his independent prescriber certificate last November.

The clinic treats around 1,800 patients at the Bishops Waltham surgery in south Hampshire, which has a list size of 13,500. ...more

Women may get pill without prescription

From Reuters (UK):
Women could be able to get the contraceptive pill from their chemist without a prescription, a health minister said on Thursday.

Lord Darzi, a leading surgeon brought into Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government, said the programme could be piloted among pharmacists or nurses.

The pill is currently available only with a prescription from a doctor, although most pharmacies are able to provide the "morning-after pill" without a doctor's authorisation.

Darzi suggested women could be given the oral contraceptive after a full assessment by a trained health professional. ...more