Conclusions  The pharmacist-driven osteoporosis pathway at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital

has sustained the rate of prescription for osteoporosis therapy over a prolonged period of time. “
“The aims of the study were to (i) quantify the sales of over-the-counter (OTC) ophthalmic chloramphenicol from all community pharmacies in Wales and investigate the impact on primary care prescriptions up to 5 years after reclassification and (ii) click here investigate the temporal relationship between items supplied OTC and on NHS primary care prescriptions. Primary care prescription data (2004–2010) and OTC sales data (2005–2010) for ophthalmic chloramphenicol were obtained. The quantity sold OTC was calculated from pharmacy wholesale records and sales data from a large pharmacy multiple. Spearman’s rank correlation for prescription and OTC supplies of ophthalmic

chloramphenicol was calculated for data from January 2008 to December 2010. OTC supply of chloramphenicol eye drops and ointment were both highest in 2007–2008 and represented 68% (57 708/84 304) and 48% (22 875/47 192) of the corresponding prescription volume, respectively. Selumetinib There was a steady year-on-year increase in the combined supply of OTC ophthalmic chloramphenicol and that dispensed on prescription from 144 367 items in 2004–2005 to 210 589 in 2007–2008 before stabilising in 2008–2009 and 2009–2010. A significant positive correlation was observed between prescription items and OTC sales of chloramphenicol eye drops and ointment combined (r = 0.7, P < 0.001). OTC availability increased the total quantity of ophthalmic chloramphenicol supplied in primary care compared to that seen prior to reclassification. Although growth in the sales of ophthalmic chloramphenicol OTC has stabilised and the supply pattern mirrors primary care prescribers, further work is required to investigate whether use is appropriate and whether the publication of updated practice guidance has changed this. There are three categories for human medicines in the UK, namely Buspirone HCl prescription-only medicines (POMs),

pharmacy-only (P) medicines and general sales list (GSL) medicines. POMs are only available on prescription whereas P medicines can be sold from a pharmacy under the supervision of a pharmacist. In contrast, GSL medicines can be sold from most retail outlets.[1, 2] Over-the-counter (OTC) medicines is a collective term used to describe P and/or GSL medicines that can be purchased without a prescription, although in this paper it is used exclusively to indicate supply from a community pharmacy. The main determinant of a medicine’s legal status is its safety, although factors such as side effects, monitoring requirements, route of administration, liability to misuse and risk to human health are also considered.[2] When a medicine is ‘switched’ from one legal category to another this is termed reclassification.