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Allergy UK Allergy Awareness Week 2017 is taking place from 24th – 30th April. This week can be used to raise awareness for all allergic conditions including food, respiratory, skin and children’s allergies. You may wish to use the week to draw attention to the support available in your pharmacy. Since we are approaching ‘hay fever season’, why not use our Hay Fever FAQs on your social media…

As Head of Marketing at the NPA my responsibility is to market and join up the services that the NPA provides and ensure that our members are very aware of what we offer, and also get good value from their investment in the association. I believe that it is important to make sure that the content that members receive is relevant and easy to access.

The NPA’s eLearning platform is a fast-developing, interactive and innovative way to carry out training. As the NPA’s eLearning content developers, our job is to convert the current NPA paper courses to an eLearning format, making them available online. This involves adhering to eLearning methodologies and principles and making the training interactive to ensure students are learning in the most…

National No Smoking Day 2017 is held annually on the second Wednesday in March to give a ‘quit date’ to those who are considering and wanting to give up smoking. Ensure that your patients are aware of the help and support they can access at their local pharmacy, not just today but all year round.

It is a year since the NPA published the report of its hub and spoke task group – An Evidence Based Policy Review. The report concluded that hub and spoke between different companies is fraught with difficulties for independents and presents dangers for the sector when set in the context of the government’s current cost-focused (rather than value-focused) policy approach

Part of my role as the Head of Corporate Affairs at the NPA is to scrutinise government policy, always with the end goal of helping independent pharmacies operate profitable businesses and provide excellent patient care. By far the most dangerous policy idea circulating in government right now is that local pharmacies can be replaced by an Amazon style medicines service.

Alongside its equivalent bodies across the channel, the NPA is a member of the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union (PGEU). The principal function of the PGEU is to lobby the European Parliament and Commission to try and influence European legislation. With the number of people in the EU at over 500 million across 28 different member countries, it is difficult for the powers that be in…

The Danish idea of hygge describes a feeling of happiness, contentment and wellbeing derived from cosiness and the small pleasures in life. In many ways some of the things we do are ‘hyggelig’ without us realising - like sitting down to eat supper with family, or lighting a candle while sitting down to read a book. Appreciating the simple comforts around us can help to enhance general wellbeing -…

In my role as Policy Manager at the NPA, I take issues of concern to independent pharmacists and develop policy recommendations in consultation with members, NPA staff and the Board. The ultimate aim is to shape public policy and influence the approach of the NHS and other stakeholders impacting our sector.

Pharmacies are a hugely under-utilised resource within the NHS. To change this, there must be more ambition amongst policy makers, commissioners of services, and government ministers. Their attitudes show that pharmacy has been misplaced in the healthcare scheme; there are so many ways that we could help further