The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7256 p5
5 July 2003

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Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust (more)

Mid Yorkshire trust gives £525,000 boost to clinical service

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust is looking to recruit the equivalent of nine pharmacists and nine pharmacy technicians after having its £525,000 medicines management development strategy approved by the trust board.

Paul Sandham, principal pharmacist for clinical governance at the trust, told The Journal that the board had given "a vote of confidence in pharmacy" by approving the strategy as a whole. Mid Yorkshire Hospitals comprises Pinderfields, Pontefract and Dewsbury hospitals and was formed last year after the merger of two smaller trusts.

"We told the board that if they gave us the resources we need then we would be able to extend patient-focused pharmacy services at ward level across the three hospitals." Extending the clinical service is expected to produce savings in the medicines budget such that the scheme should be cost-neutral by December 2004.

Mr Sandham said that recruitment plans are being fine-tuned before the posts are advertised. The strategy originally envisaged nine pharmacist/technician pairs covering nine wards but larger teams may now be formed. It is expected that new technicians will be recruited to allow existing staff to take on greater clinical roles.

The clinical teams will be involved in taking patient medication histories and assessing patients' own drugs for reuse. Self-administration of medicines is to be encouraged and a bedside locker scheme will be extended.

Mr Sandham added: "The aim of this work is to take the pressure off staff in the dispensary and to ensure that patients have the medicines they need when a decision is made to discharge them home from the hospital and avoid any waiting."

The work of existing formulary committees and a medicines information service will also be given greater support under the new strategy.