Heather Smith

Medicines waste in the care home pathway: environmental and social impacts 12.00 - 13.00 24 July 2025

Each year, £50 million of medicines are wasted in the care home pathway in England. Join us to learn some surprising insights and practical actions to address this.

Book: https://q.health.org.uk/get-involved/events/medicines-waste-in-the-care-home-pathway-environmental-and-social-impacts

Do hospital-to-home transitions work for older adults with multiple long-term conditions including dementia? A realist review - BMC Geriatrics Background Hospital-to-home transitions involve multiple providers and are particularly complex for older adults with dementia, who often live with additional conditions. Frequent transitions increase...

🎉 Congrats to PhD student Lauren Lawson, who published in BMC Geriatrics! 📚 Her review, "Do hospital-to-home transitions work for older adults with multiple long-term conditions including dementia?" Great achievement!
bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

@medicalsciencesncl.bsky.social

Help us ⬇️ £18million wasted on unused meds. Check what you have before ordering, check meds before leaving pharmacy and have ordering routine. More details ⬇️ @wypartnership.bsky.social www.wypartnership.co.uk/campaigns/or...

Study from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy finds a pharmacist educational intervention involving educational materials (videos and website resources) coupled with detailed deprescribing recommendations was shown to be effective in improving PCP's confidence in deprescribing:
buff.ly/iVWwLOy

Starmer outlines 10-year plan to change NHS ‘from sickness service to health service’ PM says work in England will focus on prevention, with early diagnosis, community hubs and lifestyle measures * UK politics live – latest updates Keir Starmer has outlined a 10-year plan for the NHS based on a shift from hospitals to community health hubs, a renewed focus on prevention and an embrace of technology, which was billed as perhaps the last chance to save the health service in its current form. Speaking at a health centre in Stratford, east London, alongside Wes Streeting, the health secretary, and Rachel Reeves, the chancellor – who had not been expected to appear – Starmer insisted this would be different to the long list of previous NHS revamps that achieved little. Continue reading...

Starmer outlines 10-year plan to change NHS ‘from sickness service to health service’

Happy Birthday NHS!

🥳 A HUGE happy birthday to the NHS from us and patients across the country! 🎂
To every healthcare worker showing up day in, day out, thank you for all you do for patients. ❤️ #NHSbirthday

The @HealthInnovNet has published a new report sharing insights on improving access to Structured Medication Reviews for patients in seldom-heard communities, particularly people living in areas of high deprivation & from ethnic minority groups: thehealthinnovationnetwork.co.uk/news/new-ins...

Free Frailty eLearning. Free to all health and social care staff from @gerisoc.bsky.social
www.bgs.org.uk/elearning/fr...

Line graph of potential funding pressures for adults social care, England, 2023/24 to 2028/29 showing that meeting future demand for social care could require an additional £3.4bn in 2028/29.

New analysis sets out our priorities for health and care investment at the #SpendingReview.
For social care, just to meet demand and rising provider costs would need an extra £3.4bn by 2028/29; to improve access could be additional £6.4bn.

Read more in our full analysis ⬇️
https://bit.ly/4dGX4CS

Let's make hospitals safer for people with #Parkinson's.
"On time," means supporting people to take their meds within 30mins of the prescribed time or symptoms could increase.
Excellent supportive resources here for hospitals and all HCPs.
#GetItOnTime
parkinsons.org.uk/professional...
#pharmsky

The association between STOPPFall medication use and falls and fractures in community-dwelling older people AbstractIntroduction. Falls and fractures are common among older people. The Screening Tool of Older Persons Prescriptions in older adults with high fall r

Prescription of 2 or more STOPPFall medications is independently associated with all falls, injurious and unexplained falls, all fractures and hip fractures. Review these meds! academic.oup.com/ageing/artic...

💡 Impactful Trial from @dremilymcd.bsky.social‬'s team!

The randomized trial found combining electronic deprescribing reports with regular medication reviews in long-term care homes led to a 23.7% increase in #deprescribing! 📊

Read the full article here:
buff.ly/5s5D5id

Comparative Safety of Medications for Severe Agitation: A Geriatric Emergency Department Guidelines 2.0 Systematic Review. #geriatrics agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Deprescribing Benzodiazepine Receptor Agonists in Older Adults and People With Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review. #geriatrics #geronsky agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Day 1: @cpcongress.bsky.social
ENIGMA mentoring programme.
Superb showcase from previous mentee and @hadeelmohamed.bsky.social explaining this opportunity for women pharmacists, addressing needs for those from ethic minorities backgrounds.
I’m a mentor for ENIGMA too.
Whooping from the back! 🥳🙌🏽🫶🏽

Brilliant paper on why promethazine is not a good option to aid sleep, and yet prescribing of it has doubled in last 5 yrs. What about OTC sales too, and also diphenhydramine.
#anticholinergics
#falls #dementia #delirium
#ACBscore
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Insightful editorial in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) @agsjournal.bsky.social from @drklam.bsky.social and his team, highlighting the following key points (see Thread):

buff.ly/Wo1lnxD

@amergeriatrics.bsky.social

Development of a complex multidisciplinary medication review and deprescribing intervention in primary care for older people living with frailty and polypharmacy Introduction Reducing polypharmacy and overprescribing in older people living with frailty is challenging. Evidence suggests that this could be facilitated by structured medication review (SMR) and de...

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

NOT TO BE MISSED!!
@npchf.bsky.social members only webinar.

The one and only Anne Child MBE sharing her insights and experience on Dementia - A holistic approach.

Join us & register your #NPCHF membership here:
www.pcpa.org.uk/articles/pcp...

@pcpa-uk.bsky.social @grahamstretch.pharmsky.app

Joining the Dots: preventing and managing frailty in older people

Frailty affects millions of older adults, and pharmacy teams have a vital role to play in their care. Our new blog explores how pharmacists can take a more person-centred, proactive approach to support those living with frailty.

Read more: bit.ly/42qaLRw

Development and external validation of the electronic frailty index 2 using routine primary care electronic health record data AbstractBackground. The electronic frailty index (eFI) is nationally implemented into UK primary care electronic health record systems to support routine i

Publication on eFI2 landed last week!
academic.oup.com/ageing/artic...

Towards the end-of-life, improving quality of life may become more important than simply prolonging life.

Non-essential or potentially harmful meds can add to pill burden.

Retrospective study finds #deprescribing practices are not yet commonplace in the final 12 months of life:
buff.ly/1UYOSVx

🚨 Editorial @agsjournal.bsky.social explores the evidence and the urgent need for advancing frailty-informed care

📖 Read more doi.org/10.1111/jgs....
📝 Based on insightful clinical investigation doi.org/10.1111/jgs....

#CHANGE #Geriatrics
@amergeriatrics.bsky.social
@geritjas.bsky.social

🚨ICYMI - #BestEvidence webinar recording

Polypharmacy & rational primary care
ti.ubc.ca/drugevidence24

@DeeMangin describes vital aspects of primary care in maximizing therapeutic benefit + provides examples & areas of challenge for rational treatment

#DrugEvidence24 #MedEd

Shortchanging Our Sleep: Why Older Adults Deserve Better Insomnia Care | British Geriatrics Society

www.bgs.org.uk/shortchangin... bsky.app/profile/dria...

The Special Resolution Vote is now open. We are urging our Members and Fellows to vote in favour of the proposed changes to our Royal Charter and transition to royal college - the Royal College of Pharmacy.

Vote now: ow.ly/RRz950Vh4xv

Find out more: ow.ly/MVzE50Vh4xw

#RPSVote

We’ve had an incredibly positive response to this publication so far. If you’re interested in tackling overprescribing and problematic Polypharmacy, especially in older people. Take a look 👀 thehealthinnovationnetwork.co.uk/wp-content/u...

Deprescribing for dementia Scientists are calling for ‘deprescribing’ to be integrated into routine medical care for patients with dementia, to reduce risks and cut out unnecessary medication.New research conducted at the Unive...

Keep taking the pills? New research looks at how medicine reviews can help people with #dementia

@nihrarcs.bsky.social @unisouthampton.bsky.social @hiowhacademy.bsky.social @pcpa-uk.bsky.social @dementiaresearcher.bsky.social @dementiauk.bsky.social

www.arc-wx.nihr.ac.uk/post/depresc...

This is an area we sadly often prescribe to checklists , slave away to guidelines and forget about the patient sitting in front of us and what matters most to them.
Join us to find out more #patientcare
#valuebasedhealthcare
#shareddecisionmaking
#generalpractice

Realigning diabetes regimens in older adults: a 4S Pathway to guide simplification and deprescribing strategies Treating older people with diabetes is challenging due to multiple medical comorbidities that might interfere with patients' ability to perform self-care. Most diabetes guidelines focus on improving g...

New—Realigning #diabetes regimens in #older adults: a 4S Pathway to guide simplification and deprescribing strategies thelancet.com/journals/lan...
#T1D #T2D #olderadults
#FREE to read with registration (also FREE)