Dry eye

As dry eye condition is not just due to insufficient tear production, it could be because of an increase in tear evaporation that may be due to a reduction in the oil film produced by the glands on the edge of the eyelids (Meibomian glands). If these are clogged the regular use of a hot compress for 10 min intervals can help to liquefy the oil more and make it easier for the oil to be massaged out of the clogged glands.

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دکتر شهیره شریف (PhD, MSC)

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Disclaimer: the main purpose of this blog is to assemble my notes for my Continuing Professional Development (CPD). The topic discussed here should not be referred to as the only source of information. If there is anything with respect to this article that concerns you, please contact your doctor or pharmacist

 مطالب مندرج در این وبلاگ صرفا برای اطلاع رسانی و افزایش آگاهی در رابطه با سلامت و بهداشت می باشد و الزاما مرجع کاملی در رابطه با موضوع مورد بحث نمی باشد. برای اطلاعات بیشتر جهت درمان، قطع یا تغییر نوع درمان با پزشک معالج یا داروساز خود مشورت نمایید

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Guidance for pharmacy services online

This is not my writing and is copied from the General Pharmaceutical Council, UK.


"We have strengthened our guidance for pharmacy owners providing pharmacy services at a distance, including on the internet, to help make sure people can obtain medicines safely online.

Making sure medicines are clinically appropriate for patients – online pharmacies will have to make sure:

• there are robust processes in place to carry out identity checks on people obtaining medicines
• the pharmacy team can identify requests for medicines that are inappropriate, including by being able to identify multiple orders to the same address or orders using the same payment details
• the pharmacy websites do not allow a patient to choose a prescription-only medicine and its quantity before there has been an appropriate consultation with a prescriber

Further safeguards for certain categories of prescription-only medicines

Further safeguards will have to be in place before supplying certain categories of medicines, including; antimicrobials, medicines liable to abuse, overuse or misuse or where there is a risk of addiction, and non-surgical cosmetic medicinal products, to make sure that they are clinically appropriate.

Transparency and patient choice

Pharmacy owners will have to supply more details about where the service and health professionals involved in prescribing and supplying the medicine are based and how they are regulated, so people have enough information to make an informed decision about using the service and can raise concerns about the service if they need to.

Regulatory oversight

Pharmacy owners working with prescribers or prescribing services operating outside the UK must take steps to successfully manage the additional risks that this may create, including assuring themselves that the prescriber is working within national prescribing guidelines for the UK.
 

These new safeguards received strong support overall from more than 800 individuals and organisations responding to a discussion paper published last year.

Please help us by promoting this new guidance to your colleagues and through your networks."

From Regulate

The text below is copied from Regulate.

"Our governing council agreed the principles that will underpin how we will regulate registered pharmacies in future at their meeting on 6 December. We are now beginning work to implement operational changes to how we regulate and inspect pharmacies in line with these principles.

The changes, which follow a major consultation across the sector and with patients and the public, include:

• publishing inspection reports – and improvement action plans when relevant, on a new website - This will be designed so that the information is easy to search and analyse. Pharmacy owners will also be expected to display inspection outcomes in their pharmacies
• moving to unannounced inspections as a general rule in the future - This will make sure the outcomes of the inspection reflect whether the pharmacy is meeting the standards every day
• changes to the types of inspections - The new model will include three types of inspection: routine inspections, intelligence-led inspections and themed inspections
• changing inspection outcomes - There will be two possible outcomes for an inspection overall: ‘standards met’ or ‘standards not all met’. There will also be four possible findings at the principle level: ‘standards not all met’, ‘standards met’, ‘good practice’ and ‘excellent practice’ 
• requiring all standards to be met to receive an overall ‘standards met’ outcome - If any standard is found not to be met, this will result in a ‘standards not all met’ outcome overall
• sharing examples of notable practice - Examples of notable practice identified through inspections will be published in a ‘knowledge hub’ on the new website. This will help encourage continuous learning and improvement in pharmacy."