NEWS
‘ AMAZON-STYLE’ PRESCRIPTION TRACKING GOES LIVE IN NHS APP FOR MILLIONS OF PATIENTS
NHS England has announced that nearly 1,500 high street chemists – including every Boots in England – are now offering the service, which enables patients to check on their prescriptions through real-time‘ Amazon-style’ updates.
Almost half( 45 %) of phone calls to community pharmacies are estimated to be from patients asking if their prescription is ready, with the new service helping to free up time for pharmacists to provide advice to patients.
Dr Vin Diwakar, Clinical Transformation Director at NHS England, said:“ We know that people want more control over how they manage their healthcare and the new prescription tracking feature in the NHS App offers exactly that.
“ You will now get a near real-time update in the app that lets you know when your medicine is ready so you can avoid unnecessary trips or leaving it until the last minute to collect.
“ The new Amazon-style feature will also help to tackle the administrative burden on pharmacists, so that they can spend more of their time providing health services and advice to patients rather than updates on the status of their prescriptions.”
Instead of phoning up, patients can instead track their prescriptions by logging in to the app to see if their medicines are‘ ready to collect’ or‘ dispatched by pharmacy’ if they are being delivered.
The service is expected to be made available to nearly 5,000 more pharmacies over the next 12 months – covering 60 % of those in England.
FIRST INHALED RESPIRATORY MEDICINE WITH NEAR-ZERO GLOBAL WARMING POTENTIAL IS APPROVED IN THE UK
AstraZeneca’ s Trixeo Aerosphere, already licensed for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease( COPD) in adults, has now been approved for use in the UK with an innovative, next-generation propellant with near-zero Global Warming Potential( GWP). This is the first medicine delivered by a pressurised metered-dose inhaler( pMDI) approved with a propellant that has 99.9 % lower GWP than propellants used in currenatly available pMDIs. Trixeo with the next-generation propellant will have a low carbon footprint, comparable to inhaled medicines that do not require a propellant.
Omar Usmani, Professor of Respiratory Medicine at Imperial College London, said:“ Pressurised metered-dose inhaled medicines are essential for millions of people living with respiratory diseases in the UK. The transition of Trixeo to the propellant with near-zero Global Warming Potential means that healthcare professionals can focus on optimising outcomes for their COPD patients based on clinical need, while also supporting climate goals. Clinicians and their patients shouldn’ t feel that they have to choose between the most appropriate treatment and the planet.”
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