Supporting, encouraging and empowering clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working in primary care practice in the Midlands

NEWS

ABOUT US

The Midlands Practice Pharmacy Network (MPPN) exists to support, encourage and empower clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working in primary care practice in the Midlands.

Founded and managed by local pharmacists, the group provides opportunities for members to network, share best practice, take advantage of professional training programmes and collaborate in service evaluation, practice research and promote outcomes from pharmacists-led clinics.

Our aims are:

To help define and raise the professional role of clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working in primary care in the Midlands.
To support the professional development of our members.
To clearly demonstrate and communicate the professional value of our members in clinical practice.
To bring together and foster the sharing of best practice amongst our members.
To engage with and cultivate productive relationships with professional colleagues, commissioners and other stakeholders.

The Midlands Practice Pharmacy Network is a not for profit organisation.

UNDERSTANDING & INTERPRETING BIOCHEMICAL & HAEMATOLGICAL TESTS

19 November 2019

This workshop – delivered by the School of Pharmacy, University of Wolverhampton – will help delegates to:

Understand and interpret the biochemical & haematological tests and biomarkers most commonly used in clinical practice.
Evaluate the clinical significance of values outside the reference range.
Relate abnormal electrolyte levels to drug therapy.
Apply their learning to practice in order to manage patients safely.

Spaces are available for MPPN members.

Information

PAEDIATRIC MINOR ILLNESS ASSESMENT

2 October 2019

Over 40 delegates attended the MPPN’s training workshop on "Paediatric Minor Illness / Assessment" on Wednesday 2nd October 2019.

Training covered: a practical approach to paediatric assessment and the management of: upper respiratory tract infection, cough/noisy breathing, vomiting & feeding problems in babies, etc

INFLUENZA VACCINATION TRAINING & AGM

11 September 2019

The MPPN’s most recent training workshop: “Influenza Vaccination Training for Pharmacists” was attended by 24 delegates. The workshop enabled delegates to:

Develop an understanding of the rationale for influenza vaccination
Demonstrate safe and effective administration through practical and theoretical learning
Be able to manage emergency situations that could occur as a result of vaccinations

The Rx Advisor Flu Jab Training Course formed the basis of the workshop and was accredited by the CPD Certification Service.

PAIN MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP

3 July 2019

Twenty seven delegates attended the MPPN’s last clinical workshop on the management of patients with chronic pain.
Sessions covered best practice in the assessment and management of patients in primary care and the review of patients receiving long-term opioids and strategies to help pharmacists manage a reduction in prescribing. In the afternoon, delegates were guided on the practical evaluation of patients, in particular appropriate methods and techniques for a thorough physical assessment.

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY

Clinical pharmacists needed to join study to design new intervention for patients with long-term pain

A team of researchers at Keele University are working with patients, clinical pharmacists and GPs on a new 5-year programme to improve care for patients taking long-term opioids for persistent non-cancer pain. The research aims to develop a new way for people taking opioids for long-term pain to be reviewed by clinical pharmacists in GP practices.

The team at Keele would like to hear the views of clinical pharmacists working in primary care. They are doing this in two ways:

One-to-one interview

Interviews are currently being conducted (by telephone or in person) to find out about your views on the use of regular opioid medicines and about clinical pharmacists conducting reviews for patients taking regular opioids for long-term pain, with the aim of reducing inappropriate opioid prescribing.

Focus group

Small group discussions with other clinical pharmacists are being organised to gather feedback about a new review, how it could be implemented and what additional training clinical pharmacists will need.

Your views are very important to the researchers, and we hope that you will be interested in taking part in the study.

How can I find out more about the study?

If you would like to find out more, please visit our website www.promppt.co.uk.

How can I participate in the study?

If you are interested in taking part in an interview or focus group you can contact a member of the research team by completing a Contact Us form (www.promppt.co.uk/contact.html). The research team will be happy to send you further information.

WHAT WE DO

TRAINING & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

A key aim of the MPPN is to support the professional development of our members - particularly those who are exclusively contracted to general practice and may not have routine access to centrally provided training programmes.
The topics covered are driven by the needs of our membership. Each member has the opportunity to identify which areas of professional development they are most interested in and we do our best to deliver training on the most popular topics. In our first 18 months we have run six 'free' events including "Understanding and Interpreting Biochemical and Haematological Tests", "Essential Dermatology - Everyday Skin Management for Primary Care", "ENT & Respiratory Assessment" and "Flu Vaccination".
If you have any suggestions for future training and would like to offer support in organising our workshops please do get in touch.

Get In Touch

RESEARCH & SERVICE EVALUATION

We believe it's important to understand, define and raise the profile of the practice pharmacist's and pharmacy technician's role. In order to illustrate and communicate the professional value of our members in clinical practice we are always on the lookout for research and service evaluation projects that demonstrate an impact on patient care, colleagues' workload and meaningful outcomes.

With support from Keele University, we have already published an 'Evaluation of a pharmacist-led telephone triage service in a GP Practice' (Journal of Pharmacy Practice, 25 (S2). pp. 7-43) and results from an audit of the management of sore throat by a pharmacist prescriber have been presented. Ongoing work includes evaluating the impact of pharmacist-led diabetes clinics in the Midlands and a survey amongst members to better understand their professional opinions and experiences.

If you have any ideas for evaluation projects that relate to the role of pharmacists and technicians in practice we would welcome your suggestions.

Get In Touch

HOW TO JOIN

MEMBERSHIP

We currently have approximately 140 registered members of the MPPN.

Membership is open to clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in the Midlands region of the UK who:

are directly employed or contracted with a general practice, and/or
have an IP qualification or are actively working towards an IP qualification and are actively considering a role working in general practice

(Pharmacy technicians not currently employed or contracted with a general practice but who are actively considering a role in general practice are also eligible for membership.)

The annual membership fee for 2019 is £25 commencing on the 1st of January 2019 to the 31st December 2019; membership to be renewed annually.

If you're interested in joining please download the application form and then email to Simon (simon@pds-keele.co.uk).

Members’ personal data will not be shared with any third parties and will only be used to support MPPN activities and processes (for example, circulation of materials and invitations to events) and to comply with legal and good governance obligations.

Download application form

COMMITTEE, CONSTITUTION & SPONSORSHIP

COMMITTEE

Chair, Bharat Patel, Clinical Pharmacist, Rushall Medical Centre
Vice-Chair, Hemant Patel, Clinical Pharmacist, Umbrella Group

The MPPN Committee comprises 7 members: a Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary and professional leads who take responsibility for areas such as training, service evaluation and membership. We meet every two months.
All members are invited to submit agenda items for discussion and we welcome approaches from any member who wishes to join the Committee.

Contact Committee

CONSTITUTION

The MPPN is an unincorporated, not-for-profit association. Our constitution sets out a series of agreed rules for the management and operation of the MPPN.

Constitution

SPONSORSHIP

The MPPN welcomes appropriate sponsorship and joint working opportunities with commercial organisations such as pharmaceutical companies.

We will work with commercial organisations where the proposed relationship and/or activity being supported:

is consistent with the our professional aims and our principles regarding integrity, independence and transparency
has been approved in advance in accordance with the MPPN's internal assessment processes

To date, we have received support from several pharmaceutical companies who have had exhibition stand space at our training workshops. This enables us to provide training free-of-charge to our members. None of the companies have had any input into the content of the programmes; and have had no involvement in choosing, briefing or paying the speakers.