TP8.2.18 Every little helps. A trainee led cost saving initiative

Aim The NHS is under pressure to deliver the best quality care within a confined budget. The cost of spending on medications is growing by 12% per annum. The five year forward plan for the NHS called for £22 Billion in efficiency savings. All NHS staff are being asked to help deliver better outcomes at lower costs. We aimed to review costs in the surgical department, identify savings, implement changes and evaluate the outcome. Method Pharmacy orders from 2016-17 were reviewed. Prices of branded and generic medications were compared. Levobupivicaine was identified as a product with cost savings between branded and generic forms. Procurement officers were advised to switch to generic alternatives and the pharmacy system was adjusted to highlight that generic forms should be ordered. Orders for 2018-19 were reviewed and savings calculated. Results 29,280 units of levobupivicaine were ordered in 2016-17. 100% of these orders were of the branded product. Projected savings of switching to a generic product was £12,846 per annum. 31,355 units of levobupivicaine were purchased during the 2018-19 period. 83% of orders were for the generic product. £11,805 was saved over this period. £1,703 of further savings have been highlighted. Conclusion We have shown that simple changes can result in modest savings. All NHS staff, including trainees, can lead cost reducing initiatives. Multiple small savings will summate to larger savings, resulting in resources being better utilised to improve patient outcomes.

Policy and vision for community pharmacies in Finland: A roadmap towards enhanced integration and reduced costs

Finland’s community pharmacy system provides an example of a privately-owned regulated system being proactively developed by the profession and its stakeholders. Community pharmacists have a legal duty to promote safe and rational medicine use in outpatient care. The development of professionally oriented practice has been nationally coordinated since the 1990s with the support of a national steering group consisting of professional bodies, authorities, pharmacy schools and continuing education centers. The primary focus has been in patient counseling services and public health programs. The services have extended towards prospective medication risk management applying evidence-based tools, databases and digitalization. Research has been essential in informing progress by indicating high-risk patients, medications, practices and processes needing improvement. Despite the commitment of the profession and pharmacy owners, large-scale implementation of services has been challenging because of lack of remuneration, the pharmacy income still consisting primarily of sale of prescription and nonprescription medicines. Policy documents by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health have supported the extension of the community pharmacists’ role beyond traditional dispensing to promote rational pharmacotherapy. The current roadmap by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health emphasizes ensuring adequate regional availability and accessibility of medicines, regardless of the future pharmacy system. It also emphasizes the importance of strong regulation on pharmacy business operations and sale of medicines to ensure medication safety. At the same time, the roadmap requires that the regulation must enable implementation of new patient-oriented services and procedures, and further promote digitalization in service provision. Competition and balance of funding should be enhanced, e.g., through price competition, but the risk of pharmaceutical market concentration should be managed. The regulation should also consider influence of the new social and health care system on drug delivery. Year 2021 will be crucial for making long-term political decisions on the future direction of tasks and finances of Finnish community pharmacies in this framework. Government-funded studies are underway to guide decision making. Ongoing Covid-19 crisis has demonstrated the readiness of Finnish community pharmacies to adapt fast to meet the changing societal needs.

Present Scenario and Prospect of Model Pharmacy in Dhaka City, Bangladesh

The pharmaceutical sector is one of the most promising sectors of Bangladesh. With a view to elimitate the improper dispensing practice as well as matching up to the advancing global standard of health care system, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MHFW), Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh had launched the “Model Pharmacy” program in 2016. Our aim was to find out the perception of general people regarding model pharmacy and the study the overall impact in our healthcare system due to its inauguration. A survey was conducted among the major stakeholders of model pharmacy system such as patients, physicians, retailers and DGDA personnel and the data were correlated. All the stakeholders applauded the initiative. However, each section pointed out specific problems. According to the retailers, flexibility in the license getting process was a must as they found the process to be lengthy (31.43%), unnecessarily strict (22.86%) and corrupted (22.86%). The physicians felt the program needed more exposure and recommended campaigning (23.33%). Additionally, they recommended to build up databases of doctors (46.67%) and model pharmacies (50%) for the ease of collaboration between them and the retail pharmacists. Patients were in favor of introducing more model pharmacies (20%) and recruitment of A-grade Pharmacists (6.67%). DGDA personnel noticed the miscommunication between physicians, retail pharmacists and authority to be a major problem. All the stakeholders unanimously focused on regular monitoring of the program to make it a success. Beyond this discussion, we are hopeful that with adequate measures and continuous modification, the “Model Pharmacy” program would become successful in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 23(2): 172-180, 2020

LEGAL PROTECTION ASPECT OF SELLING DRUG TRANSACTIONS THROUGH ONLINE PHARMACY SERVICE

This writing aims to find out how the form of legal protection against consumers in the event of default in conducting drug sales transactions through online pharmacy services and to find out the form of liability by the seller or pharmacist when committing negligence to consumers in the transaction. This writing uses the normative legal research method with the data collection method used is the Literature Method; Tracing the research material is done by reading, studying, and quoting legislation, and related literature and then the data obtained are analyzed qualitatively.The results of this study address that: (1) the form of legal protection for online pharmacy consumers has been specifically regulated in the health law, the law on health workers and generally regulated in the consumer protection law. (2) The legal consequences obtained by the pharmacist or negligent seller is to provide compensation to consumers if proven to have neglected and are responsible for their profession both in civil and administrative terms. Based on these results, it is recommended: (1) pharmacists or sellers to pay close attention to every doctor's prescription that enters the pharmacy system in order tomaintain the safety and security of consumers in consuming drugs. (2) Consumers or the public must be more careful when receiving drugs from pharmacists so that if pharmacists are negligent, drugs can be replaced immediately before consumption.