Untethered Travel Clinic PGDs

You may have missed our launch of the all new Travel Core 2.0 so here are some of our product launch videos. The first one is for Pharmacists who are managers of pharmacies. The idea of the Travel Core 2.0 is to get as many pharmacists under one umbrella as possible, so we can all benefit from our economies of scale.

The second video is meant for pharmacies locums:

If you would like to sign up to the new Travel Core 2.0 please give us a call on: 

020 7971 7777

Travel Clinic Paraphernalia

Douglas Pharmacy which uses Travel Clinic PGDs has extremely limited space for OTC and P products however, we do stock a wide range of travel paraphernalia  The most essential of which are:

• Small first aid kits - buying empty ones and then filling them with bespoke products is a good idea. I like to add drowsy anti histamines (such a chlorpheniramine) - as this can double as a mild sedative and reduce allergic reactions to stings, effervescent co-codamol - two tablets contain the equivalent of 2g of salt which can be useful for diarrhoea episodes, it is also a good pain killer, mild sedative and can reduce bouts of diarrhoea.
• DEET mosquito repellent - anything above 30% is considered an excellent repellent. Young children <6 yo should not really use DEET so alternatives are handy such as citronella (however they are yet to be proven clinically).
• Sun tan lotion - for some reason this always goes out of stock at wholesalers at peak season, it is always good to have a healthy stock of high factor sun cream usually 30+ SPF should suffice.
• Mosquito nets - for those intrepid trekkers going to areas with lots of fresh water this is a must. The most effective type of mosquito nets are those which are impregnated with permethrin.
• Water purification apparatus - nowadays this comes in various different forms. The cheapest way to purify water is with chlorine tablets or iodine, however this often tastes unpalatable. Purification straws can now be obtained which contain a micro-filtration system which can filter any nasties from the water.

Needle reuse

Many vaccine preparations come in pre-filled syringes and no reconstitution is required. However, Meningitis, Rabies and Yellow fever all need reconstitution. The steps this entails are as follows:

1. Remove the items from the packaging - two needles, pre-filled syringe containing the solvent and reconstitution vial containing a powder.
2. Transfer the solvent to the vial - using a spare needle (i.e. the one you will not use on the patient) carefully inject the solvent into ampoule containing the solid.
3. Shake vigorously - make sure the solid is completely dissolved by the solvent and there is not particulate matter.
4. Withdraw the solution with the same needle - once the complete solution has been withdrawn back into the barrel of the syringe the needle should be changed.
5. Change the needle and expel the air - once this is complete you are ready to inject!

The picture below illustrates the overuse of a needle. If the needle is not changed during the process above the needle will become blunt (increasing patient discomfort) and also could increase the risk of a latex allergy.

Overuse of needles

Doctors letter about Travel Clinics

Below is a letter we have drafted for our members to send to their local doctors and medical service. It would be a good idea to customise it and take it personally down to them.

To whom it may concern,

We have just started a new PGD authorised Travel Service at our pharmacy. 

We can now administer most major vaccines including:

• Hep A
• Hep B
• DTP
• Typhoid
• Rabies
• Meningitis
• Cholera
• Japanese Encephalitis

In addition to this we now offer all types of antimalarials (including PoMs), including:

• Malarone
• Malarone Paediatric
• Doxycycline
• Lariam
• Chloroquine
• Paludrine

We hope to work with you to maintain excellent travel health services in our area.

All our appointments are walk-in or booked appointments (patients can call our regular pharmacy number). Our lead pharmacist who is fully trained and PGD authorised works full time so any urgent requirements by patients could be easily referred.

We also have the ability to request bespoke PGDs from our authorising multidisciplinary team, if there are any other areas we could help you with we would be more than willing to help.

Attached is a letter detailing our service to patients who would like more information.

Kindest regards,

Hi,

Our pharmacy has now started a new Travel Service available for your convenience. If you are travelling abroad, why not pop in and ask one of our friendly staff what you wold need. Advice is completely impartial and you wont be charged a consultation fee.

We can now administer most travel vaccines including:

• Hep A
• Hep B
• DTP
• Typhoid
• Rabies
• Meningitis
• Cholera
• Japanese Encephalitis

These vaccines are especially useful if you find yourself travelling outside of Europe to places like Asia, South America or Africa.

In addition to this we now offer all types of antimalarials (including PoMs), including:

• Malarone
• Malarone Paediatric
• Doxycycline
• Lariam
• Chloroquine
• Paludrine

These medicines are extremely useful if you are travelling to any endemic country such as parts of Africa, Asia and South America.

If you have any queries about our service just give us a call on our regular pharmacy number. If you would like to know more about travel advice for specific locations have a look at:

http://www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/

Hope to see you soon! 

Excellent Meningitis Map

The map show which areas of Africa have meningitis.

Meningitis Belt

Pharmacy Travel Clinic

How PGDs will revolutionise private health in pharmacies 

Pharmacy services in the UK are changing. As disillusioned pharmacist turn away from ever decreasing NHS reimbursement, pharmacists are looking for new services to generate additional revenue streams. One of the fastest developing sectors are Patient Group Directions (PGDs).


But what is a PGD?
A patient group direction is a document which is authorised by a team of doctors, pharmacists and nurses which allows the supply of specified Prescription Only Medicines. A PGD specifies certain "Groups" of patients who can be given the medicines without a prescription. These protocols exclude the most vulnerable in society from treatment however this is only 1% of the populous. In general, dependent on which PGD is used, 99% of all patients will be included in treatment.
This poses a huge opportunity for pharmacies to specialise in certain fields. For instance patients have always been able to go to tehir pharmacy and purchase products like Regaine (Minoxidil) or Alpecin for hair loss. With the use of PGDs pharmacists can supply oral medicines such as Propecia - which is the most effective adgrogenetic alopecia (male pattern baldness).
The biggest opportunity which has emerged in recent years is patientgroupdirection.com is now offering pharmacists the ability to create their own independent Travel Clinic in their pharmacy. Called the "Travel Core" it authorises the same Travel Health service that you would find in any independent travel clinic or GP surgery. Pharmacists working under the Travel Core PGDs have been report yearly profits of between £10-30K which is a large return for the initial investment.

Pharmacy Travel Clinic

Why is a pharmacy travel clinic so special?

Lots of professions have been encroaching on the Unique Selling Point of pharmacy for quite some time. This may be your local petrol station selling ibuprofen (without asking about asthma or stomach complaints) or doctors dispensing their own prescribed medicines (some would say a conflict of interest).

So how has pharmacy encroached on other professions? Have we started selling petrol from our pharmacies? Or have we started supplying Prescription Only Medicines? There are more obvious areas for expansion then others one major area is the second statement supplying POMs. There are other areas which take advantage of our main USP as pharmacist:

We are the most accessible medical professionals - on every high street.

Noone can take this away from us, but how can we capitalize on this? Just think what do people in this day and age really want... Easy access, convenience and fast service. Lets break down some barriers and give this service to them, instead of letting the patient wait 3 weeks for a doctors travel service why not allow them to talk to a suitably trained pharmacist and access a pharmacy travel clinic asap?

Pharmacist travel clinic training

Pharmacists can run their own travel clinic by using authorised patient group directions (Pharmacy PGDs) with sufficient up to date training. But what training is involved? This is up to the PGD authorising medical agency, they will have their own internal protocols to make sure that the training they  give meets certain safety standards. There are national standards and recommendations for pharmacist travel clinic training, the training provided by the medical agency should fully meet these.