Getting the medicines right

Report

Getting-the-medicines-right

Our report 'Keeping patients safe when they transfer between care providers: Getting the medicines right' outlines the results of a six-month project involving over 30 healthcare organisations which volunteered to implement RPS guidance on transfer of medicines information.

Recommendations

  • All suppliers of IT systems to hospitals and general practice should ensure that their systems are able to effectively transfer the recommended core content of records for medicines.
  • All community pharmacies should have an NHS.net website address to enable secure communications between secondary and primary care.
  • Going forward, all clinical records should be structured in a recognised and nationally agreed format to assist interoperability and the transfer of information.
  • The most effective ways of signposting patients treated in secondary care to the post discharge Medicines Use Review Service and New Medicine Service offered by community pharmacists should be shared
    nationally to ensure that patients are able to optimise their outcomes from medicines.
  • The early adopter sites identified that a subgroup of patients likely to benefit from a post discharge MUR are unable to benefit from the service as they cannot get to a community pharmacy (for example patients in care homes or those who are housebound). Commissioning of such services to these vulnerable patients should be considered as part of the pharmacy contractual frameworks.