Corrinne Burns

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) received its “highest ever recorded” number of concerns in quarter two of 2025/2026, with 2,159 concerns reported. In council papers, released ahead of and due to be discussed at a meeting on 11 December 2025, the GPhC said the nature of the concerns “mirrors wider sector pressures, with customer service […]

Prescriptions for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) continue to rise, latest figures from the NHS show. According to data published by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) on 4 December 2025, in the second quarter (Q2) of 2025/2026, 297,000 patients were prescribed drugs for ADHD, an increase of 5% compared with the first quarter […]

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) is calling on government and NHS leadership to address a declining number of people taking part in commercial clinical trials, warning that action is needed if the UK is to remain a competitive location for research. In its report on UK industry clinical trials, published on 2 […]

Every hospital pharmacist who responded to a European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) survey said they had experienced a critical medicine shortage in 2024. Results of the survey, published in the EAHP’s ‘2025 shortages survey report‘ on 28 November 2025, also revealed that more than one-third (38%) of respondents said medicines shortages had resulted in […]

A Boots pharmacy in Durham is piloting community pharmacy recruitment to clinical trials, as more patients present at pharmacies with common conditions. The pilot, which will recruit women presenting with urinary tract infections (UTIs) to the DURATION trial, is a partnership between Boots and the University of Oxford’s Primary Care Clinical Trials Unit. The DURATION […]

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has announced that Joe Irvin will be the first chair of the new Royal College of Pharmacy (RCPharm) board of trustees. In an announcement published on 24 November 2025, the RPS said Irvin would be “instrumental in guiding the new royal college during its founding period”. Irvin was a trustee […]

Almost nine out of ten patients were offered over-the-counter (OTC) medicines and self-care advice under the antimicrobial stewardship criterion of the Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS), a study has found. Publishing the study findings in JAC – Antimicrobial Resistance on 18 November 2025, researchers analysed the data of of 225,615 patients who presented at community pharmacies […]

Pharmacy First in England should be expanded into a national walk-in clinical service, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on pharmacy has said. In a report on the future of community pharmacy in England, published on 20 November 2025, the APPG said Pharmacy First should be “developed into a consistent, widely accessible front-door NHS service for […]

The Pharmacy Schools Council (PhSC) has called for a joint ministerial taskforce to expand student recruitment and increase clinical placement capacity ahead of the publication of the NHS ten-year workforce plan. In a joint letter sent to health secretary Wes Streeting and health minister Karin Smyth on 13 November 2025, the PhSC and other bodies, […]

Patients’ risk of not adhering to medication plans can be predicted by the ‘Social, Psychological, Usage and Rational’ (SPUR) tool, which can also help understand social and psychological factors behind non-adherence, leading to more personalised interventions, according to a study. In the study, published in Nature Scientific Reports on 26 September 2025, researchers retrospectively examined 1,800 […]