Community Pharmacy Discharge Medicine Service to continue
29 Apr 2014 02:36 PM
The community pharmacy discharge medicine review
service will continue in Wales after an independent evaluation revealed it
benefits patients and can prevent A&E visits.
The
service helps people returning home after a stay in hospital by ensuring they
are prescribed the right medicines for their illness or injury. The scheme also
gives patients an opportunity to ask their pharmacist questions about their
medicines and how to take them.
The
continuation of the service after June 2014 was dependent on the findings of
the independent evaluation. It found a high proportion of the interventions
made by pharmacists providing the service (39%), had the potential to prevent
people needing to go to A&E departments.
It
also found the service is very cost effective, with a suggested three to one
return on investment. This is mainly attributed to reductions in hospital
admissions, visits to A&E departments and medicine waste.
The
discharge medicine review service will now be incorporated into the contractual
framework for community pharmacies in Wales.
Welsh Government Health Minister Mark Drakeford
said:
“I am pleased to receive this positive evaluation
and to agree to the continuation of the service.
“However, this is not simply a decision to
continue the scheme as before. We will look to build on its success and the
findings of the evaluation report will help us to do just
that.”
The
announcement follows the news the NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS) has
secured funding of £280,000 through the Welsh Government’s Health
Technology and Telecare Fund to set up and run a project to improve
communication between community pharmacies and other parts of the
NHS.
It
will involve developing a secure means of providing electronic discharge advice
letters to community pharmacists in two health board areas in Wales. It
is hoped the project will support the completion of discharge medicine reviews
by pharmacists and reduce medication errors, help patients take their medicines
correctly and further improve health outcomes.