The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7254 p853
21 June 2003

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Fourth wave medicines management pilots invited to explore two new areas

New opportunities are available to applicants for the fourth wave of medicines management pilots in England.

Dr Jim Smith: up to 40 more pilot sites

Speaking at a national conference for primary care prescribing advisers in Nottingham on 18 June, the Department of Health's chief pharmaceutical officer, Dr Jim Smith, announced that up to 40 additional sites will join the 106 primary care trusts already involved in the first three waves of the programme.

He said: "The launch of a fourth wave will increase the impact of the improvements being made to health care for potentially 20 million people across England. And there will be additional opportunities to consider two new aspects of medicines management — the interface between general practice and hospitals and repeat dispensing."

Richard Seal, the programme's national director, said that as well as the existing work in primary care, new sites will be encouraged to explore improvements that can be made in partnerships between PCTs and local hospitals. These could include work on self-administration of medicines, use of patients' own medicines in hospitals, discharge dispensing and better communication about medicines.

The closing date for fourth wave applications is 27 August. Prospective applicants are being asked to register their interest in joining the programme with the National Prescribing Centre by 25 July.

Medicines management pilots started in 2001 after the Government allocated £1.9m to the project. The first three waves of schemes include 105 different projects.