From the Branches

Medicines management: pharmacists can make a difference

Pharmacists can, and should, make a difference to medicines management, Mr Mark Pilling (medicines management project team development manager National Prescribing Centre) told the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Ipswich and Suffolk branch during a recent branch meeting on "Demystifying medicines management".

Speaking in Bury St Edmunds on 16 October, Mr Pilling said that medicines management means improving and extending what pharmacists already know. Too much of what is done in managing medicines is reactive rather than responsive and preventive — as evidenced by the number of hospital admissions associated with medicine use in the elderly, and the confusion for both patients and professionals that often arises with medication following hospital discharge.

Concordance, or partnerships with patients in medicine taking, can be vastly improved, Mr Pilling said. Health professionals need to get to grips with their current service provision. GP practices need to ask how good is the current system for helping patients get the best from their medicines. Much is likely to be learnt from medicines support provided to hospital patients.

The medicines management agenda will drive the need to improve current systems and open doors for pharmacists who wish to become involved. The National Medicines Management Collaborative and the piloting of local pharmaceutical services are likely paths to progress. Primary care trusts and local pharmaceutical committees will be keen to promote opportunities and recruit pharmacists. Pharmacists will be in demand to take part in these pilots of longer-term solutions to medicines management problems. Local prescribing advisers, LPC members and hospital pharmacists will be pleased to hear from interested pharmacists.

Pharmacists need to provide expertise and knowledge in designing better systems for local medicines management. GP practices may want to know how to improve their repeat prescribing systems, how to identify patients whose health would benefit from medicines and how, working with pharmacists, surgeries can increasing opportunities for patients to find out more about their medicines.

Pharmacists in primary and secondary care need to work with each other and with GP practice teams. While some may only wish to improve the safety and effectiveness of prescription management, others will wish to support local prescribing policies and formularies or to take a more clinical role by providing dedicated pharmaceutical care and medication review.