June 9, 2001
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The Pharmaceutical
Journal Vol 266 No 7151 p770-772 June 9, 2001 |
News summary Two-year discharge intervention
trial running in East Anglia Pharmacists in Norfolk and Suffolk
are taking part in a discharge intervention trial designed to find out
if the hospital readmission rate for older people can be cut by better
control of their medication...[more] |
Two-year discharge intervention trial running in East AngliaPharmacists in Norfolk and Suffolk are taking part in a discharge intervention trial designed to find out if the hospital readmission rate for older people can be cut by better control of their medication. The study is expected to last for two years and is to involve over 600 people aged 80 years and over. The principal investigator, Dr Richard Holland, of the University of East Anglia’s school of health policy and practice, said: “We want to see whether home visits by pharmacists who can advise and help deal with any problems make a difference. We believe it could improve older people’s health and prevent them going back into hospital.” People who are discharged from hospital to their own homes and who are taking two or more medicines are eligible for the trial. Half of them will receive two home visits from a pharmacist — one within five days of discharge and the second six to eight weeks later. Twenty-one pharmacists have been trained for the project. They will carry out full medication reviews before they see each patient. During the visits they will assess each patient’s understanding of all their medicines, including any over-the-counter medicines they may be taking, and whether they need any specific help. This could include reminder charts, larger bottles that are easier to open, non-child resistant closures, larger labels or a compliance aid. If compliance aids are needed, the trial has the funds to provide these along with fees payable to the dispensing pharmacists for six months. Feedback about the patient is provided to the relevant community pharmacist and family doctor. Six months later, the research team will assess the patient’s quality of life according to the EuroQol standard (information about which can be found on the internet and any hospital admissions. Dr Holland says that no interim results of the project will be available because no analysis is to be made until the project is completed next year. The trial is being conducted with patients discharged from the Norfolk and Norwich, James Paget and Ipswich hospitals. |
Volunteers wanted for Neema projectThe International Pharmaceutical Students Federation is now looking for volunteer pharmacy students to work at a dispensary its has built in Tanzania. The first four students, from Canada, are already in place and the next four have been recruited. Applications for the third rotation close at the end of June. In addition to the volunteer students, the dispensary is to be stafffed by a pharmacy assistant, two nurses and a medical assistant. Eight years after its inception, the dispensary provided by the International Pharmaceutical Students Federation’s Neema project has been declared open. The opening ceremony was performed on May 27 by the Tanzanian deputy minister of health, Dr Hussain Mwinyi. A pharmacy and pharmacy store, together with a laboratory and a mother and child health care centre, including delivery and recovery rooms, have been built to serve the three Tanzanian villages of Kiromo, Buma and Mataya — a total population of 7,279 people including 1,276 children under five years old. There is currently no electricity, although an electricity cable runs nearby. The funds to build the facility have been raised through the efforts of pharmacy students world-wide, including members of the British Pharmaceutical Students Association. The total cost will be about $100,000. In Tanzania, a dispensary is more than a place where medicines are dispensed; it is a one-stop primary care post offering medical advice on all sorts of problems from diarrhoea to complicated labour. Before the dispensary was opened, up to 70 per cent of deaths in Kiromo were caused by malaria or preventable childhood diseases, 30 per cent of deaths were directly attributable to a lack of sanitation and 29 per cent to the non-availability of medicines. The next nearest dispensary is 10km away. The project was conceived in 1993 by Winna Shango, a local Tanzanian student. It took off in 1997 at the IPSF congress in Vancouver, Canada, when the Canadian Association of Pharmacy Students and Interns and the American Pharmaceutical Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists became partners. In 1998, the British Pharmaceutical Students Association became the third international partner. These organisations, and the Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Association then raised the funds for the project. The overall aim was to build the dispensary, as well as separate living quarters for staff. When fully operational, it will have a staff of four — a pharmacy assistant, two nurses and a medical assistant. For the first three years, IPSF students and students from the local university at Dar es Salaam will work in the dispensary for periods of from three to six months. After this, the local government will take over the running of the dispensary as a sustainable facility. Much of the medicines will be provided by the generosity of companies in East Africa. The project is to be fully evaluated, with an initial base-line survey and a detailed three-year survey to measure its outcomes. Neema is a Swahili word meaning “grace”. More information about the project and how to become involved is available on the internet at www.ipsf.org. |