The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7231 p39
11 January 2003

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Welsh Assembly: Press release (more)

Welsh Assembly earmarks £500,000 for automated dispensing in hospitals

The National Assembly for Wales is to spend £500,000 installing automated dispensing robots at three hospital pharmacies in the next financial year. The move is the first phase in a plan that could see robots installed in all hospital pharmacies in Wales.

Jeremy Savage, chief pharmacist at West Wales General Hospital, Carmarthen, is one of the architects of the move to automated dispensing. He told The Journal that following a meeting with Welsh Health Minister Jane Hutt, the Welsh Chief Pharmacists Committee put forward proposals including automated dispensing. Following intensive lobbying of the Assembly, in conjunction with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Welsh Executive, Mr Savage was asked to write a three-phase implementation plan for automated dispensing.

Cheryl Way, principal pharmacist at Llandough Hospital, one of the pilot sites, said that one of the main requirements for automated dispensing to work is a move to patient packs and a greater use of patients' own drugs. Llandough Hospital hopes to use its robot for both inpatient and outpatient dispensing and ward box assembly.

"This will release staff time and we hope it will allow our pharmacy technicians to spend more time working on the wards. We want to undertake more assessments of patients' medication on admission and spend more time with patients at discharge, making sure they have the correct medicines and that they understand how to use them. We are doing this already, but we could do more if we had more time — automated dispensing will help a lot."

Speaking during a visit to Llandough Hospital, which is in her constituency, Jane Hutt said: "There are substantial benefits to the new automated dispensing systems. A report by the United States National Academy of Science estimated that over 78 per of dispensing errors could be avoided by the use of automated dispensing systems. In addition though, the automated system will enhance the benefit of pharmaceutical care by releasing staff from the dispensary to the patient's bedside. This will reduce the incidence of prescribing and administration errors thereby improving patient outcomes and reducing costs."

A study (PDF 65K) published in The Journal last year (30 March 2002, p437) showed that installing automated dispensing at Wirral Hospital, Merseyside, allowed 3.5 whole-time-equivalents of pharmacy staff to be redeployed from dispensary to ward work while turnaround times in the dispensary were maintained or improved. One of the article's authors, Ann Slee, is now chief pharmacist at Glan Clwyd Hospital, which has been chosen as the third pilot site for automated dispensing.

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