High street pharmacies to compete with doctors

Britain’s biggest pharmacist has alarmed doctors and patient leaders with plans to offer in-store skin cancer checks and diabetes treatments, The Times reports.

As patients wait longer to see GPs, Boots aims to offer treatments traditionally provided by doctors, arguing that the private sector can find more convenient ways of organising care.

Doctors said yesterday that pharmacists should be brought into surgeries, rather than opening up quasi-practices on the high street, warning that patients faced paying for treatment in shops that they should receive free on the NHS.

Patient leaders expressed concern that people may feel pressurised by commercial outlets into buying check-ups that they did not need.

Kennedy’s Pharmacy makes charity cheque donation

The staff of Kennedy’s Pharmacy, Rasharkin and Dunloy have recently handed over a cheque for £600.00 to Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke, the Ballymoney and Moyle Times reports.

Pharmacist, Patrick Kennedy said: “We are often asked to countersign Passport and Driving Licence applications and although we do not make a charge for this, we collect any donations offered to give to a chosen charity each year.

“Most people do offer a small donation and these mount up over the year.”

Kennedy’s Pharmacy also added to these donations to make a total donation of £600.

Pharmacist takes up the reins at Welsh board

Community Pharmacy Wales has elected a Pembrokeshire pharmacist as its new chair, the County Echo reports.

At its annual meeting, CPW board members elected Phil Parry as chair, a post he held for some for 12 years prior to 2009.

Phil owns and is superintendent of Drigarn Cyf, which operates as E P Parry Pharmacy in Crymych, and has been a member of various health and pharmacy bodies throughout his career.

A graduate of the Welsh School of Pharmacy, he is also a member of the Welsh Board of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the Welsh Pharmaceutical Committee and chair of the Hywel Dda Health Professionals Forum, and is an associate member of the health board.

Phil has previously served as a Health Authority member, a Family Health Service Authority member and a Local Health Board non-executive member.

British women pay five times more for morning-after pill than rest of Europe

The average cost of emergency contraception for women in the UK is up to five times more than in France, the Daily Mail reports.

British women pay an average of £28 for the morning-after pill, while in France it is just £5.40.

And there are concerns that women have to do a 'walk of shame' to buy the drug.

In the US, Scandinavia and France women can buy the pill without needing a public consultation about their sex life at a pharmacy.

Ireland is the only country in Europe where women pay more for the pill.

Pregnant French women could be paid €300 to stop smoking

French hospitals are offering money to pregnant who smoke if they give up nicotine in a new study to test the impact of financial incentives, the Independent reports.

Expectant mothers who commit to giving up will be paid incrementally in €20 vouchers, with the chance to earn up to €300 if they do not start smoking again.

The study, carried out by Paris’s public hospital system in association with the National Cancer Institute, will test whether offering pregnant women money will help convince them to stay away from tobacco throughout their pregnancy.

Women over 18 who have been pregnant less than four months can apply to take part in the study, if they smoke more than five manufactured cigarettes (or three rolled cigarettes) each day.

Sugar content of fizzy drink listed in Liverpool as city bids to cut child tooth decay

Fizzy drinks will be named and shamed in Liverpool as part of the country's first council campaign against sugary drinks manufacturers, The Telegraph reports.

A high-profile profile campaign entitled "Is your child's sweet tooth harming their health?" will outline how many sugar cubes are in drinks such as Lucozade, Coca-Cola, Tropicana, Capri-Sun and Ribena.

Around 2,000 children in Liverpool will have had tooth extractions by the age of five and more than a third will have suffered from tooth decay, say health chiefs.

While a 14-year-old child recently needed 15 adult teeth removing, added Public Health Liverpool.