Dispensing activity in a community pharmacy-based repeat dispensing pilot project

Objective: To measure changes in dispensing activity in a UK repeat dispensing pilot study and to estimate any associated cost savings. Method: Patients were provided with two successive three-monthly repeat prescriptions containing all of the items on their "repeat medicines list" and valid at a study pharmacy. Pharmacists consulted with patients at the time of supply and completed a patient-monitoring form. Prescriptions with pricing data were returned by the UK Prescription Pricing Authority. These data were used to calculate dispensing activity, the cost of dispensed items and an estimate of cost savings on non-dispensed items. A retrospective identification of items prescribed during the six months prior to the project was used to provide a comparison with those dispensed during the project and thus a more realistic estimate of changes. Setting: 350 patients from two medical practices in a large English City, with inner city and suburban locations, and served by seven pharmacies. Key findings: There were methodological challenges in establishing a robust framework for calculating changes. Based on all of the items that patients could have obtained from their repeat list, 23.8% were not dispensed during the intervention period. A correction was then made to allow for a comparison with usage in the six months prior to the study. Based on the corrected data, there was an estimated 11.3% savings in drug costs compared with the pre-intervention period. There was a marked difference in changes between the two practices, the pharmacies and individual patients. The capitation-based remuneration method was acceptable to all but one of the community pharmacists. Conclusion: The repeat dispensing system reduced dispensing volume in comparison with the control period. A repeat dispensing system with a focus on patients' needs and their use of medicines might be cost neutral.

The Birmingham community pharmacy repeat dispensing project

Report on a pilot project funded by the Dept of Health and involving 350 repeat dispensing patients at 7 community pharmacies and two medical practices. 82% of patients approached were willing to enter a repeat dispensing service and after 6 months 86% liked the system. Concludes that successful repeat dispensing depends on a good infrastructure in both the pharmacy and the medical practice, and requires established inter-professional communication.

Dialogue, speech and images:the companions project data set

This paper describes part of the corpus collection efforts underway in the EC funded Companions project. The Companions project is collecting substantial quantities of dialogue a large part of which focus on reminiscing about photographs. The texts are in English and Czech. We describe the context and objectives for which this dialogue corpus is being collected, the methodology being used and make observations on the resulting data. The corpora will be made available to the wider research community through the Companions Project web site.

The public health role of community pharmacies

This article describes the experience of developing an enhanced public health role for a community pharmacy in the Castle Vale estate in Birmingham. It shows that the neighbourhood-based regeneration context of Castle Vale has created a stimulating setting for an ambitious and innovative pharmacy company to demonstrate what might be possible on a much wider scale in the UK. A core ethos of the Castle Vale regeneration initiative has been public-private partnership and this project reveals some 'critical success factors' for on-the-ground achievement.

Good dog SPOT? Single pot funding of local voluntary and community groups

This paper reports on a recent pilot project by the English government aimed at introducing 'single pot' funding for local voluntary and community groups. It finds that implementation difficulties undermined the success of the scheme. Moreover, whilst local voluntary and community groups were initially enthusiastic about the scheme, this was eroded both by the shortfall in funding for the initiative and by conflicting priorities for it from its national and regional flinders and from local groups.

Community involvement in urban nature conservation : case studies of the Urban Wildlife Group 1980-85

The effectiveness of the strategies employed by the Urban Wildlife Group (a voluntary conservation organisation) to provide and manage three urban nature parks has been evaluated, using a multiple methods methodology. Where the level of community interest and commitment to a project is high, the utilisation of the community nature park strategy (to maximise benefits to UWG and the community) is warranted. Where the level of interest and commitment of the local community is low, a strategy designed to encourage limited involvement of the community is most effective and efficient. The campaign strategy, whereby the community and UWG take direct action to oppose a threat of undesirable development on a nature park, is assessed to be a sub-strategy, rather than a strategy in its own right. Questionnaire surveys and observations studies have revealed that urban people appreciate and indeed demand access to nature parks in urban areas, which have similar amenity value to that provided by countryside recreation sites. Urban nature parks are valued for their natural character, natural features (trees, wild flowers) peace and quiet, wildlife and openness. People use these sites for a mixture of informal and mainly passive activities, such as walking and dog walking. They appear to be of particular value to children for physical and imaginative play. The exact input of time and resources that UWG has committed to the projects has depended on the level of input of the local authority. The evidence indicates that the necessary technical expertise needed to produce and manage urban nature parks, using a user-oriented approach is not adequately provided by local authorities. The methods used in this research are presented as an `evaluation kit' that may be used by practitioners and researchers to evaluate the effectiveness of a wide range of different open spaces and the strategies employed to provide and manage them.

Community pharmacists' engagement with public health in Great Britain

Objective - The objective of the research was to examine to what extent community pharmacists in Great Britain believed that their job was concerned with local public health issues. Methods - The project (Pharmacy and Public Health)received ethical approval from the Research Ethics Committee of the School of Life and Health Sciences at Aston University. After piloting, in August 2006 a self-completion postal questionnaire was sent to practicing community pharmacists in Great Britain (n=1998), with a follow-up to non-responders 4 weeks later. A final response rate of 51% (n=1023/1998) was achieved. Results - Respondents were asked to indicate their answer to the question “to what extent is your present job concerned with local public health issues?” on a three-point scale – “highly”, “slightly” or “not at all” concerned with public health. They were also asked to indicate whether they were pharmacy owners, employee pharmacists or self-employed locum pharmacists. Less than half (43%,n=384/898) of respondents answering both questions believed that their job was highly concerned with public health. A relationship was observed between employment status and the level to which a respondent believed that their job was concerned with public health (chi-square test with P=0.001). Over half of pharmacy owners (51%, n=68/134) considered that their job was highly concerned with public health compared to44% (n=193/443) of employee pharmacists and38% (n=123/321) of locum pharmacists. Conclusion - This research suggests that community pharmacists in Great Britain are not ‘fully engaged’ with public health. Pharmacy owners may feel more enfranchised in the public health movement than their employees and locums. Indeed, one-in-ten locums reported that their job was not at all concerned with public health which, as locum pharmacists constitute over a third of actively employed community pharmacists, could be limiting factor in any drive to strengthen the public health function of community pharmacists.

The Library of Birmingham project:lifelong learning for the digital age

The Library of Birmingham (LoB) is a £193million project designed to provide a new space for lifelong learning and knowledge growth, a physical and virtual portal for Birmingham's citizens to the wider world. In cooperation with a range of private, public, and third-sector bodies, as well as individual citizens, the library, due to open in June 2013, will articulate a continuing process of organic growth and emergence. Key delivery themes focus on: arts and creativity, citizenship and community, enterprise and innovation, learning and skills and the new media ecology. A landmark design in the heart of the cultural district of the city, the LoB aims to stimulate sustainable economic growth, urban regeneration and social inclusion by offering a wide range of new digital learning services, real and virtual community spaces, and new opportunities for interpreting and exploiting internationally significant collections of documentary archives, photography, moving image, and rare printed books. Additionally, the LoB will offer physical space for creative, cultural, enterprise, and knowledge development. This paper outlines the cultural and educational thinking that informs the project and the challenges experienced in developing innovative service redesign.

Community accessibility of health information and the consequent impact for translation into community languages

This paper reports on a research project that investigated the accessibility of health information and the consequent impact for translation into community languages. This is a critical aspect of the mediation of intercultural and interlingual communication in the domain of public health information and yet very little research has been undertaken to address such issues. The project was carried out in collaboration with the New South Wales Multicultural Health Communication Service (MHCS), which provides advice and services to state-based health professionals aiming to communicate with non-English speaking communities. The research employed a mixed-method and action research based approach involving two phases. The primary focus of this paper is to discuss major quantitative findings from the first pilot phase, which indicated that there is much room to improve the way in which health information is written in English for effective community-wide communication within a multilingual society.

An online assessment and development tool for business incubators:optimising business-incubation management practice, performance and impact, Project Report

This project is focused on exchanging knowledge between ABS, UKBI and managers of business incubators in the UK. The project relates to exploitation of extant knowledge-base on assessing and improving business incubation management practice and performance and builds on two earlier studies. It addresses a pressing need for assessing and benchmarking business incubation input, process and outcome performance and highlighting best practice. The overarching aim of this project was to obtain proof-of-concept for a business incubation performance assessment and benchmarking online tool, fine-tune it and put it in use by nurturing a community of business incubation management practice, aligned by the resultant tool. The purpose was to offer an appropriate set of measures, in areas identified by relevant research on business incubation performance management and impact as critical, against which: 1.The input and process performance of business incubation management practice can be assessed and benchmarked within the auspices of a community of incubator managers concerned with best practice 2.The outcome performance and impact of business incubators can be assessed longitudinally. As such, the developed online assessment framework is geared towards the needs of researchers, policy makers and practitioners concerned with business incubation performance, added value and impact.

Port community learning needs:analysis and design

The port industry is facing a dramatic wave of changes that have transformed the structure of the industry. Modern seaports are increasingly shifting from a “hardware-based” approach towards “knowhow intensive” configuration. In this context knowledge resources, learning processes and training initiatives increasingly represent key elements to guarantee the quality of service supplied and hence the competitiveness of modern seaport communities. This paper describes the learning needs analysis conducted amongst key port community actors in three ports in the south east of Ireland during 2005 in the context of the I-Sea.Net project. It goes on to describe the learning requirements report and the training design carried out based on this analysis.

Role of community acceptance in sustainable bioenergy projects in India

Community acceptance has been identified as one of the key requirements for a sustainable bioenergy project. However less attention has been paid to this aspect from developing nations and small projects perspective. Therefore this research examines the role of community acceptance for sustainable small scale bioenergy projects in India. While addressing the aim, this work identifies influence of community over bioenergy projects, major concerns of communities regarding bioenergy projects and factors influencing perceptions of communities about bioenergy projects. The empirical research was carried out on four bioenergy companies in India as case studies. It has been identified that communities have significant influence over bioenergy projects in India. Local air pollution, inappropriate storage of by-products and credibility of developer are identified as some of the important concerns. Local energy needs, benefits to community from bioenergy companies, level of trust on company and relationship between company and the community are some of the prime factors which influence community's perception on bioenergy projects. This research sheds light on important aspects related to community acceptance of bioenergy projects, and this information would help practitioners in understanding the community perceptions and take appropriate actions to satisfy them. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

The Ecumenical movement and the making of the European Community

The European Community has largely been considered a predominantly secular project, bringing together the economic and political realms, while failing to mobilise the public voice and imagination of churchmen and the faithful. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, this is the first study to assess the political history of religious dialogue in the European Community. It challenges the widespread perception that churches started to engage with European institutions only after the 1979 elections to the European Parliament, by detailing close relations between churchmen and high-ranking officials in European institutions, immediately after the 1950 Schuman Declaration. Lucian N. Leustean demonstrates that Cold War divisions between East and West, and the very nature of the ecumenical movement, had a direct impact on the ways in which churches approached the European Community. He brings to light events and issues which have not previously been examined, such as the response of churches to the Schuman Plan, and the political mobilisation of church representations in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg. Leustean argues that the concept of a 'united Europe' has been impeded by competing national differences between religious and political institutions, having a long-standing legacy on the making of a fragmented European Community.

The Post-Growth Project:how the end of economic growth could bring a fairer and happier society

This book challenges the assumption that it is bad news when the economy doesn’t grow. For decades, it has been widely recognized that there are ecological limits to continuing economic growth and that different ways of living, working and organizing our economies are urgently required. This urgency has increased since the financial crash of 2007–2008, but mainstream economists and politicians are unable to think differently. The authors of this book demonstrate why our economic system demands ecologically unsustainable growth and the pursuit of more ‘stuff’. They believe that what matters is quality, not quantity – a better life based on having fewer material possessions, less production and less work. Such a way of life will emphasize well‑being, community, security and ‘conviviality’. That is, more real wealth. The book will therefore appeal to everyone curious as to how a new post-growth economics can be conceived and enacted. It will be of particular interest to policy makers, politicians, businesspeople, trade unionists, academics, students, journalists and a wide range of people working in the not-for-profit sector. All of the contributors are leading thinkers on green issues and members of the new think-tank Green House.

A joint approach to treating dental phobia:a re-evaluation of a collaboration between community dental services and specialist psychotherapy services ten years on

Objective To audit the records of a group of patients who had previously benefited from cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for dental phobia.Aim To ascertain if they had returned to the use of intravenous (IV) sedation to facilitate dental treatment. Ten years ago these patients were routinely requiring IV sedation to facilitate dental treatment due to severe dental phobia.Method Sixty patients entered the original pilot project. Of those, 30 were offered CBT and 21 attended. Twenty of those patients (95.2%) were subsequently able to have dental treatment without IV sedation. In this follow-up study the electronic records of 19 of the 20 patients who had originally been successful with CBT were re-audited. Our purpose was to see if there was any record of subsequent IV sedation administration in the intervening ten years.Results Of the 19 successful CBT patients available to follow-up, 100% had not received IV sedation since the study ten years ago. This may suggest the initial benefit of CBT has endured over the ten-year period.Conclusion This study indicates that the use of CBT for patients with dental phobia proves beneficial not only in the initial treatment but that the benefits may endure over time. This results in a significant reduction in health risks to the patient from repeated IV sedation. It may also translate into significant financial savings for dental care providers. Our evidence for CBT as treatment for dental phobia suggests dental services should be implementing this approach now rather than pursuing further research. © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.