Nicola Wake talks to Melissa Melly, a pharmacy technician in GP practice.  Melly shares how she resolved a difficulty in arranging blood tests related to medicines monitoring by undertaking venepuncture training and delivering urgent or overdue blood test appointments in a weekly clinic.

Phlebotomy: a Pharmacy Technician Coffee Break Conversation

Audio from our webinar held on the 4 March 2025 which featured a facilitated case-based discussion about the complexities of polypharmacy and deprescribing. This was a follow on from our first webinar, which lays the foundations of some of the deprescribing tools available. (57m02s)

Speakers: 
Lelly Oboh: Older people lead, NHS SPS
Jasvir Singh Dhillon: Clinical pharmacist, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin ICB, & GP practices
Rakhi Aggarwal: Primary care lead, NHS SPS

Primary care discussions: personalised evidence-based medicine to minimise polypharmacy

Nicola Wake, Associate Director, Medicines Use and Safety at SPS, presents a summary of the resources published by SPS between11th and 17th October.  

To easily find a list of newly published pages go to sps.nhs.uk, select ‘search’, click in the search bar, and press enter.     

Quick links to highlighted resources:    

Prescribing Outlook  
This is our annual output to support managed entry and budget planning for new medicines, new indications and patent expiries in the NHS.
https://www.sps.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Prescribing-Outlook-2025.xlsx#:~:text=Prescribing%20Outlook  

Golimumab biosimilar 
If you’re preparing to use golimumab biosimilar, we’ve added phase 2 and phase 3 checklists to our website.
https://www.sps.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Golimumab-Biosimilar-Patient-Information-Sheet-version-2-FINAL-1.docx#:~:text=golimumab%20biosimilar  

PGD templates for trimethoprim and/or nitrofurantoin for UTI  
Version 2 of the templates have been published. They are valid from January 2026, but we publish them a few months in advance so organisations can take them through local governance processes in a timely manner.   
https://www.sps.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nitrofurantoin-PGD-template-UTI-V2.0-1.docx#:~:text=PGD%20templates%20for%20trimethoprim%20and/or%20nitrofurantoin%20for%20UTI  
https://www.sps.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Trimethoprim-PGD-template-UTI-V2.0-1.docx#:~:text=PGD%20templates%20for%20trimethoprim%20and/or%20nitrofurantoin%20for%20UTI   

Next events – forthcoming webinars and conferences       
https://www.sps.nhs.uk/home/events/next-events/      

Podcast description:     
NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service serves healthcare professionals across the NHS who are involved in all aspects of buying, making and using medicines. Our motto is 'do once and share'.    

  

21 October: Prescribing Outlook, Golimumab Biosimilar, & CPC North

NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service serves healthcare professionals across the NHS who are involved in all aspects of buying, making and using medicines.  Our motto is 'do once and share'.

21 October: Prescribing Outlook, Golimumab Biosimilar, & CPC North

NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service

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