Non Medical Prescribing Update for Community Clinicians 18 November 2026

This practical, case-based session explores some of the most important medicines safety challenges encountered by community healthcare professionals. It focuses particularly on older adults with frailty, multimorbidity and polypharmacy, where changes in health, renal function or medication can rapidly increase the risk of harm.

Using realistic community scenarios, participants will explore medicines reconciliation after hospital discharge, high-risk medicines, drug interactions, OTC medicines, monitoring requirements and medication-related deterioration. Cases will include anticoagulants and NSAIDs, methotrexate during acute illness, medicines affecting renal function, and newly initiated opioids associated with drowsiness, constipation and falls

This practical diabetes update is designed for healthcare professionals working in community services and virtual wards who support adults living with diabetes. Using clinical scenarios, the session will explore contemporary diabetes management, interpretation of glucose and HbA1c results, commonly used medicines, and the recognition of patients at risk of deterioration.

Particular emphasis will be placed on managing diabetes outside the traditional hospital setting, including hypoglycaemia, hyperglycaemia, sick-day management, medication safety, diabetic foot problems and recognising when escalation or urgent referral is required.

This practical, case-based session provides an update on the assessment and management of asthma in community healthcare settings. It is designed for healthcare professionals working across community nursing, virtual wards, urgent community response, primary care and other community services.

The session will focus on recognising poorly controlled or deteriorating asthma, reviewing current treatment, inhaler technique and adherence, and identifying inappropriate or excessive reliever use. It will also consider corticosteroid use, exacerbation management, prescribing considerations and when patients require urgent escalation or specialist review—areas already identified as priorities within the wider Community Prescribing Update programme.

Clinical cases will be used to translate current asthma recommendations into everyday community practice, including the patient whose asthma is worsening despite frequent use of their reliever inhaler

This practical, case-based session provides community practitioners with an update on the assessment and management of common dermatological presentations encountered in community practice.

Led by Dr Varun Kumar, GP Registrar with a Special Interest in Dermatology, the session will explore the recognition of skin conditions across different skin tones, including the challenges of identifying erythema and inflammation in darker skin.

Using realistic community-based clinical scenarios, participants will consider the management of eczema, appropriate use of topical corticosteroids, cellulitis and its common mimics, infected eczema and scabies. Particular attention will be given to safe prescribing, antimicrobial stewardship and avoiding unnecessary antibiotic treatment.

The session will also help practitioners identify dermatological red flags, recognise signs of systemic or serious infection and determine when patients require urgent escalation, medical review or specialist referral.