The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7187 p274-79
2 March 2002

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Lack of money may delay automation

A warning that automation of hospital pharmacy services will be delayed unless money is ear-marked for it has been issued by Helen Remington, president of the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists. "It needs badged money," she said.

At a recent guild information technology interest group seminar, Mrs Remington said that money was made available for the modernisation of pathology services last year. A similar initiative was now needed in pharmacy. The Government had recently made £200m available for the modernisation of decontamination services in the NHS, so there was a well-established precedent for ring-fenced funding. Where progress was needed urgently, reliance on non-committed capital allocations was inadequate because they were always under significant pressure.

The introduction of automation is a key strategy to deal with the serious shortfall in the numbers of hospital pharmacy staff available to the NHS, according to Mrs Remington. Freeing hospital pharmacists to focus on clinical care and reduce the time they spend on supply matters is crucial at a time when the opportunities for improving their contribution to patient care have never been more evident and are clearly supported by Government.

Automation will also help meet the target to achieve a 40 per cent reduction in medication errors. A case study in the "Spoonful of sugar" Audit Commission report (PJ, 22/29 December 2001, p873) reports a reduction from 17 dispensing errors to seven per 100,000 items dispensed when automation was introduced.