We are pleased to confirm that the next Independent Prescribers (IP) meeting will take place on Thursday, 23rd January 2025.

Congratulations to everyone who has recently passed their IP Courses. Well done! Once you have had the chance to celebrate, here are some details for next steps.

Congratulations to everyone who has recently passed their IP Courses. Well done! Once you have had the chance to celebrate, here are some details for next steps.

The following generic list of Community Pharmacy (CP)) Independent Prescriber (IP) Equipment has been produced to give a recommendation of what should be available for CP IPs to deliver care.

NES are hosting a online session which will focus on what is involved in being a DPP that supports trainee pharmacist IPs for the current university IP qualifications. However, a short update on progress relating to the future role of DPPs supporting Foundation Training Year trainee pharmacists will also be shared.

The following training site Lung Sounds (easyauscultation.com) supports pharmacists to become familiar with different chest sounds to aid identification of specific conditions and issues.

For those of you new to the newsletter, here are some useful websites and resources.

In the last newsletter, we highlighted feedback from the CP IP network that on some occasions, patients are being referred from community pharmacies where there is not a CP IP in place, but on consultation do not need the care of a CP IP, and advice and/or treatment could have been given in the original pharmacy.

Scottish Government (SG) and Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS) have produced guidance for the NHS Pharmacy First Scotland (NHS PFS) service, which is in response to previous questions and outcomes from live events held with the community pharmacy network.

Here is a list of dates of future Community Pharmacy Independent Prescribers Meetings. Please get in touch at enquiries@cps.scot if you would like to join – and if you have any agenda items, or topic you would like to discuss, please send them too.

For the attention of Community Pharmacy (CP) Independent Prescriber (IP) Employee Pharmacists on Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS) / NHS Education for Scotland (NES) Funded Places from 2021.

There are now many more CP IPs and Trainees in practice across community pharmacy, so we are going to move the CP IP information into the main newsletter. This will increase the reach of the information to the network, and will keep all the newsletter information into one place.

A number of CP IPs have advised that there are increasing referrals to CP IPs from community pharmacies where there is not a CP IP in place. The common clinical condition where this is being seen often is for the treatment of sore throats.

List of Future Dates. All 730pm – 830pm on Teams. Please get in touch on enquiries@cps.scot if you would like to join – and if you have any agenda items, or topic you would like to discuss, please send them too!

Researchers from Edinburgh University and Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) have produced a Scottish Government-funded survey for community pharmacists about their practice around SRH in the community pharmacy.

The information below will allow you to check your NES Clinical Skills Records on TURAS. 

Thanks to everyone who attended the Podiatry Training on the 26th June. Hope you found it beneficial.

Here is a link to the related website.

Big thanks to everyone who continues to support the Trainee CP IP employees as they undertake their training to become Independent Prescribers. Much appreciated! A couple of "asks" here for support going forward.

Congratulations to everyone who has passed their IP Courses. Well done! Once you have had the chance to celebrate, here are some details for next steps.

Please find attached the detail for the Podiatry Training which was mentioned in earlier newsletters. If you would like to attend, you need to apply for a place with the organiser - the details are in the invitation.

The RPS are running a survey looking into community pharmacists current experience of accessing digital records in practice and they want to understand what is needed to improve digital access for you and your patients.

We have recently hosted MSP visits in some of our pharmacies, which have been great opportunities to showcase the great work all the teams carry out, and the CP IP Prescribing service in particular. Thanks to all the teams who supported!

List of Future Dates. All 730pm – 830pm on Teams. Please get in touch on enquiries@cps.scot if you would like to join – and if you have any agenda items, or topic you would like to discuss, please send them too!

Updates on Clinical Training Days and Teach & Treat are still in the pipeline. Will be with you asap, and definitely before the end of May.  Apologies for the delay - if you have any questions, please contact me on amanda.rae@cps.scot.

Big thanks to everyone who has supported PLP for our CP IP Trainees. The need for this remains high. So another request here for anyone else who can offer support. As little or as much as you can, it is all great, and much appreciated.

The Community Pharmacy Independent Prescriber May Meeting date is changing to Wednesday 22nd May, 730-830 on Teams.

The next meeting will be on May 23rd (one week earlier than usual due to holidays)

 Time: 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm

Platform: Microsoft Teams

General update - if you have any additional agenda items, please let us know. 

Please contact us on enquiries@cps.scot if you would like an invitation…

Not specifically for CP IPs, but may be a useful resource in pharmacy practice.

Gateway C has been launched in Scotland. It is a free online cancer education platform for primary care health professionals. You will find launch and registration information in the following link.

The details of the event and how to apply will be sent by the organisers over the coming weeks. Applications will go directly to them via a link in the invitation.

They are looking to sort permissions to release a recording of the event for anyone not able to attend on the night.

There have been a few specific enquiries on various aspects of CP IP Training courses. Details here -

PLP Consultations

PLP consultations can be a mix of face to face, telephone/remote consultations. It is also fine to use other healthcare professionals to support PLP such as audiologists, optometrists and physiotherapists where this supports initial understanding of aspects relating to common clinical conditions. However, this cannot be all PLP time as CP IP Trainees need to progress during their training to being observed undertaking the role rather than just shadowing others.

Specific Competencies

For Yellow Card/ responding to adverse effects or other competencies that are difficult to directly observe, the GPhC have advised that not every Learning Outcome (LO) needs to be directly observed. Provided reflective discussions assures the DPP that the trainee is knowledgeable and has the skills to perform the task then if the DPP is comfortable they can sign off the learning outcome.