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

In this episode John Oliver speaks to expert guests who define unlicensed medicines and explain why we need them. We discuss the shared responsibility for their use and the role of pharmacy in managing them safely. (20m28s)

Speakers: 

John Oliver, Quality Assurance Specialist; NHS SPS 
Emma Kirk, Medication Safety Officer Network Lead, Medicines Use and Safety Pharmacist; NHS SPS 
Linda Hardy, Regional Quality Assurance Pharmacist, NHS SPS, North East and Yorkshire 
Nicola Husain, Education and Training Lead for the Neonatal and Paediatric Pharmacy Group 
Tim Root, Specialist Pharmacist (NHS SPS) and a former Chief Pharmacist

Useful links:

MHRA guidance 
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supply-unlicensed-medicinal-products-specials (MHRA guidance on unlicensed medicinal products – specials, including Guidance Note 14) 

SPS guidance 
https://www.sps.nhs.uk/home/guidance/unlicensed-medicines/ 

https://www.sps.nhs.uk/articles/understanding-excipients-in-medicines/ 

https://www.sps.nhs.uk/articles/searching-for-presence-or-absence-of-an-excipient-in-medicines/ 

https://www.sps.nhs.uk/articles/navigating-a-potential-supply-issue/ (SPS log-in required) 

https://www.sps.nhs.uk/articles/managing-complexities-of-medication-use-across-care-boundaries/ (Medication Safety across the System providing resources that include valuable real-world examples of safely managing unlicensed liquid medicines)

Unlicensed medicines: why we need them

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

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'.

Unlicensed medicines: why we need them

NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service

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