Philip Brown, publisher of The British Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, shares his views on the public perception of pharmacy, where it went wrong, and what is required from the new professional body to salvage our profession.

The dust is beginning to settle on the new ruling that patients can pay for private treatment while continuing to receive NHS care. But exactly what costs will they have to meet? And what role do clinical pharmacists have in providing advice to private patients? Steve Williamson explains.

NICE has changed the way it assesses life-extending treatments for rarer diseases. This is likely to increase the number of therapies approved for use on the NHS. Anne Hines looks at which cancer drugs this is likely to involve,  and considers the practical implications of the changes.

Two new drug launches are expected to impact on cardiology therapy this year. Helen Williams describes the evidence behind them and their likely effect on practice.

Antibiotics are not just the responsibility of infectious diseases pharmacists. Tracy Lyons and Hayley Wickens outline the drugs that all pharmacists should look out for this year.

By Chris Green and John Quinn.

National guidance states that medicines reconciliation should be carried out for all adults admitted to hospital, but excludes children.¹ A team from Birmingham Children’s Hospital has conducted a study to determine the clinical significance of not conducting medicines reconciliation when children are admitted to hospital. By David Terry, Guirish Solanki, Anthony Sinclair, John Marriott and Keith Wilson.

Prescriber’s Corner sets out real situations encountered by pharmacist prescribers and invites you to consider what action you would take. In this case, a cardiac patient with severe breathlessness presents to a heart failure clinic. By Helen Williams.

Outsourcing the dispensing of selected outpatient prescriptions at the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust is showing early benefits to both patients and the trust. Alison Ewing, clinical director of pharmacy at the trust, outlines how.

Lack of information about a patient’s opioid history is a recognised risk to the prescribing, dispensing and administration of these drugs. To address this problem, a team from Birmingham is piloting a new record system which they hope will become the national standard. By Abi Jenkins and Michelle Aslett.

Last month Martin Stephens took up a new post at the Department of Health – national clinical director with responsibility for hospital pharmacy. He tells The British Journal of Clincal Pharmacy about his plans.

Delegates packed the venue to hear a group of pharmacy leadership coaches give a motivational talk at the recent American Society of Health-System Pharmacists mid-year clinical meeting held in Orlando, Florida. The theme was achieving excellence and influencing change. This article brings you the key messages from the session, and prompts you to put some of the theories into action.