The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7172 p654-655
3 November 2001

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Primary care and community pharmacy network summary

Progress on medicines management

The national medicines management programme was outlined by Mark Pilling and Breeda Worthington (development managers, Collaborative Medicines Management Services Programme).

The strategic framework from the NHS plan and "Pharmacy in the future" provides £30m over three years for every PCT to have medicines management services by 2004. The programme, announced in September 2000, is hosted by the National Prescribing Centre. From 116 completed applications for the first wave, 26 pilot sites had been selected in September 2001. The second wave pilots would start in April 2002.

Medicines management services are systems for designing, implementing and delivering accessible, appropriate and cost-effective pharmaceutical care to patients based on need. They can include all aspects of the therapeutic use of medicines from organisation to individual patient level. The aims are: to achieve better prescribing; to identify and meet pharmaceutical needs (improved health outcomes, greater patient and carer satisfaction, improved access); to reduce waste; to use staff time more efficiently; and to make use of professional skills. The way to get involved is to contribute to local objective setting, to support participating sites (through dialogues and networks, integration of other local projects and participation in service development), to attend local workshops and to take part in the collaborative process.

The project managers are looking for improvement in the management of medicines for patients and carers, through activities such as medication review, relevant therapeutic medicines management, and a team approach and involvement in medicines management. These are markers of improvement because targets are already set in NSFs and "Pharmacy in the future".

More information is available at www.npc.co.uk.

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