Hospital Pharmacist
Vol 9 No 7 p184
July/August 2002

News summary

Government plans to make bedside medicines lockers widely available

The Government wants the use of patient medicines lockers to become widespread in NHS hospitals, as part of plans to reduce wastage of medicines in the health service.

In a report entitled "Making a difference — reducing burdens in hospitals" (PDF 400K) jointly produced by the Cabinet Office and the Department of Health, it was announced that the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency will be developing a national contract for the supply of medicines lockers. The implementation date for the contract has been fixed for April 2003.

The report commends hospitals that have already developed local protocols focusing on patients' own drugs and self-administration schemes. Such schemes allow patients to continue taking their medicines and get used to taking any new medicines while still in hospital. As part of these protocols, some hospitals have obtained bedside medicines lockers.

A study carried out by pharmacists at Wirral Hospitals NHS Trust and reported in The Pharmaceutical Journal (2002;268:274) described a reduction in medication errors with bedside lockers, when compared with the traditional ward drug trolley.

The full report is available here

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