The Mid-Sussex NHS trust's medicine supply and discharge information project has won the Health Service Journal's 2000 clinical risk initiative of the year award. The award was presented to Mr Ian Bourns (chief pharmacist, Mid-Sussex NHS trust) and Mr Richard Moss (the trust's risk adviser) by Mr John Denham (Minister of State for Health) at the Savoy hotel on November 7. The award is one of nine annual health management awards which are made to reward excellence in NHS management. The project involved re-engineering the supply of medicines to all the trust's acute wards. Changes made included providing bedside medicines lockers, reusing patients' own medicines, supplying all drugs in discharge format and using technicians rather than pharmacists to manage the supply process at ward level. Enhanced discharge drug information for high risk patients was also provided. High risk patients were those taking four or more medicines where therapy was changed during an inpatient stay. New information provided to general medical practitioners on discharge included what medicines had been started or stopped and the reasons for changes, changes in dosage if the drugs were only for short term use and any drug monitoring the GP would need to put in place. In a statement, Mr Bourns told The Journal that the project entailed risk assessment and the implementation of solutions that had worked elsewhere. The Mid-Sussex project was distinctive because it had mapped the whole drug supply process, coupled with an assessment of risk and safety factors so as to target areas of greatest risk. Monitoring was ongoing, but drug and patient selection errors at ward level had been almost eliminated. Previously, these were the two areas producing the greatest number of reported errors.