A pharmacist, also known as a chemist or a druggist, is a healthcare professional who dispenses medications and who provides advice on their effective use, with the aim of preventing disease and promoting public health. Pharmacists often serve as primary care providers in the community, and may offer other services such as health screenings and immunizations.
Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links health sciences with pharmaceutical sciences and natural sciences. The professional practice is becoming more clinically oriented as most of the drugs are now manufactured by pharmaceutical industries. Based on the setting, pharmacy practice is either classified as community or institutional pharmacy. Providing direct patient care in the community of institutional pharmacies is considered clinical pharmacy.
A prescription, often abbreviated ℞ or Rx, is a formal communication from a physician or other registered health-care professional to a pharmacist, authorizing them to dispense a specific prescription drug for a specific patient. Historically, it was a physician's instruction to an apothecary listing the materials to be compounded into a treatment—the symbol ℞ comes from the first word of a medieval prescription, Latin: Recipere, that gave the list of the materials to be compounded.
A prescription drug is a pharmaceutical drug that is only permitted to be dispensed to those with a medical prescription. In contrast, over-the-counter drugs can be obtained without a prescription. The reason for this difference in substance control is the potential scope of misuse, from drug abuse to practicing medicine without a license and without sufficient education. Different jurisdictions have different definitions of what constitutes a prescription drug.
The NHS Electronic Prescription Service is part of the NHS National Programme for IT of the National Health Service in England. It enables the electronic transfer of medical prescriptions from doctors to pharmacies and other dispensers and electronic notification to the reimbursement agency, NHS Prescription Services.
LloydsPharmacy is the trading name of Lloyds Pharmacy Ltd, a British pharmacy company. It has around 17,000 staff and dispenses over 150 million prescription items annually. It is owned by the Aurelius Group and was formerly owned by the American McKesson Corporation.
An online pharmacy, internet pharmacy, or mail-order pharmacy is a pharmacy that operates over the Internet and sends orders to customers through mail, shipping companies, or online pharmacy web portal.
The NHS treatments blacklist is an informal name for a list of medicines and procedures which will not be funded by public money except in exceptional cases. These include but are not limited to procedures which the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has ruled of limited effectiveness and particular brand name medicines. In 2017 there was a proposal for 3,200 over-the-counter (OTC) drugs to be restricted and 18 procedures to be added to the list. This generated some controversy amongst doctors with some arguing that OTC should be blacklisted instead, and others believing the move did not take into account individual patient needs.
Charges for prescriptions for medicines and some medical appliances are payable by adults in England under the age of 60. However, people may be exempt from charges in various exemption categories. Charges were abolished by NHS Wales in 2007, Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland in 2010 and by NHS Scotland in 2011. In 2010/11, in England, £450 million was raised through these charges, some 0.5% of the total NHS budget. In April 2021 the charge was raised to £9.35 for up to a three-month supply of each item. In 2022, for the first time since 2010, the charge was not increased.
The term private prescription is a term used in the United Kingdom for a medical prescription which is not supplied under the National Health Service (NHS).
A pharmacy is a retail shop which provides pharmaceutical drugs, among other products. At the pharmacy, a pharmacist oversees the fulfillment of medical prescriptions and is available to counsel patients about prescription and over-the-counter drugs or about health problems and wellness issues. A typical pharmacy would be in the commercial area of a community.
Electronic prescription is the computer-based electronic generation, transmission, and filling of a medical prescription, taking the place of paper and faxed prescriptions. E-prescribing allows a physician, physician assistant, pharmacist, or nurse practitioner to use digital prescription software to electronically transmit a new prescription or renewal authorization to a community or mail-order pharmacy. It outlines the ability to send error-free, accurate, and understandable prescriptions electronically from the healthcare provider to the pharmacy. E-prescribing is meant to reduce the risks associated with traditional prescription script writing. It is also one of the major reasons for the push for electronic medical records. By sharing medical prescription information, e-prescribing seeks to connect the patient's team of healthcare providers to facilitate knowledgeable decision making.
Well, formerly known as The Co-operative Pharmacy, is the largest independent pharmacy business and the third largest overall pharmacy chain after Boots UK and Lloyds Pharmacy in the United Kingdom. It is the largest pharmacy chain in Wales.
Automatic Generic Substitution is a proposal by the Department of Health (DH) whereby in January 2010 pharmacists could be obliged to substitute a generic version of a medication even if the prescriber had written the prescription for a specific brand, as part of a new deal on drug pricing.
Online doctor is a term that emerged during the 2000s, used by both the media and academics, to describe a generation of physicians and health practitioners who deliver healthcare, including drug prescription, over the internet.
Pharmacy in the United Kingdom has been an integral part of the National Health Service since it was established in 1948. Unlike the rest of the NHS, pharmacies are largely privately provided apart from those in hospitals, and even these are now often privately run.
R v Lee is the leading case in England and Wales concerning erroneous professional dispensing of a controlled medicine. The case was considered by foremost judges with a conviction in the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales in front of its President, the Recorder of London, and its partly successful appeal in the binding precedent-level Court of Appeal. The case confirmed that a serious error in giving a vulnerable customer a potent drug that does not match in any way the prescription, where such action is not the primary causation of any death or suffering, can result in a prosecution of the responsible pharmacist, with up to 2 years imprisonment, depending on the circumstances.
MedExpress is an online doctor & pharmacy founded in December 2013. MedExpress offers prescription-only medications (POMs) through an online consultation which is reviewed by a licensed doctor. MedExpress operates a same day delivery service in London with deliveries as fast as 90 minutes making it one of the fast online doctor services in the country.
The Dispensing Doctors' Association is an organisation for rural general practitioners in the United Kingdom, based in Kirkbymoorside.
A Minor Ailment Scheme is a service provided by pharmacies for the National Health Service, first established in England in 2008.
