The Scottish Therapeutics Utility (STU) is software that has been commissioned by the Therapeutics Branch of the Scottish Government and is free to use for all NHS Scotland GP practices. The aim of STU is to help practices improve safety, optimise efficiency and reduce avoidable waste, particularly in relation to repeat prescribing.
STU displays real-time prescribing data via graphs and tables (including patient and drug details) to help identify trends in repeat prescribing. Matters such as duplicate prescribing, non-issued items and excessive medication issues are highlighted and can be prioritised for corrective action.
STU now incorporates a report which identifies patients on 6 types of high-risk prescription (EFIPPS). LINK HERE
Practices interested in accessing STU can ask their Prescribing Support Pharmacist or Technician for further information. Further information on EFIPPS is available here
There is now a new process to allow GP practice-based Pharmacist Independent Prescribers (PIPs) to prescribe electronically using GP clinical systems.
Key Points of the process;
This process improves record keeping and accuracy, reducing transcribing errors from hand written prescriptions.
Advantages include;
Practice-based PIP will commence using this process shortly and in collaboration with the practice.
GP practices will need to approve the use of this new method of prescribing and ideally, nominate a GP as the authorizing prescriber for this process to work.
In response to the forthcoming “Sugar Tax” levy on the production of sugary drinks, many manufacturers are significantly reducing the amount of sugar in their products. This has implications for diabetics who may use drinks, most commonly Lucozade, to manage hypoglycaemia. April 17 Lucozade began rollout of new formulations across their product range.
Key Points
The new recipe of Lucozade Original has 8.9g carbohydrate per 100ml, reduced from 17g.
There will be a mix of old and new formula products on the shelves for some time to come. All drinks across the Lucozade range are changing and other soft drink manufacturers are changing many of their products. Lucozade are also adding aspartame artificial sweetener to their products, this is a source of phenylalanine. Other manufacturers may do the same.