National Health Service Executive regional offices are to introduce a medicines management performance framework specifically for hospitals later this year.
In a Parliamentary written reply on November 14, the Minister for Health (Ms Gisela Stuart) said that this would happen as a result of the NHS pharmacy plan which made it clear that NHS hospitals in England should review their pharmacy systems to make them efficient, timely and safe, and more patient focused.
Responding to a series of questions tabled by Dr Jenny Tonge (Lib Dem, Richmond Park), Ms Stuart said that there would also be a collaborative programme to spread and share best practice. This was likely to include the use of medicines which patients bring into hospital on admission and self-administration schemes on wards (including the use of patient bed-side boxes). Hospitals were also likely to dispense medicines on discharge and to outpatients more frequently in complete original packs.
Re-engineering systems in this way would reduce waste and improve the cost effectiveness of spending on medicines generally, the Minister said. It might involve expenditure for hospitals which was previously incurred within primary care and work was under way to ensure that local health commissioners and hospitals worked together on suitable funding arrangements.