New guidance on out-of-hours medicines
Access to medicines out of hours looks set to improve following the publication of new guidance by the Department of Health.
The guidance is the outcome of a four-year piece of work following the
Carson review in 2000, which set new standards for out-of-hours care.
In relation to medicines, the Carson review recommended: “Other
than in exceptional circumstances, patients should be able to receive
the medication they need at the same time and in the same place as the
out-of-hours consultation.”
Following the Carson review, a DoH team was set up to identify ways to
achieve this objective. The outcome is the publication of the guidance, “Securing
proper access to medicines in the out-of-hours period”, which was
officially launched at a conference in London last week.
The guidance consists of 13 action points and a national out-of-hours
formulary. Among its recommendations are:
· Where patients’ clinical needs are such that treatment should
start without delay, they will need to be able to access the medicines
at the same time and the same place as their out-of-hours consultation
· Primary care trusts (PCTs) should develop a local formulary, endorsed
by the appropriate local prescribing committee, which includes all the
medicines listed in the new national out-of-hours formulary
· PCTs should ensure that, where necessary and appropriate, patients
are able to receive the benefit of the advice of a pharmacist or dispensing
doctor, although this need not be face to face
· PCTs need to ensure that all health professionals are able to access
appropriate levels of pharmaceutical advice out-of-hours
· PCTs should improve the quality of their local data on actual community
pharmacy opening hours and special out-of-hours schemes (including ensuring
the information is kept up-to-date and available to NHS Direct)
News feature p140
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