Hospital Pharmacist
Vol 10 No 2 p37
February 2003

News summary

Automated dispensing to be installed in hospital pharmacies within Wales

Automated dispensing robots are to be installed in three hospitals across Wales, at a cost of £500,000. The National Assembly for Wales is financing the plan, which could eventually lead to robots being installed in all hospital pharmacies in Wales.

The project has been developed by the Welsh Chief Pharmacists Committee, and will be in three phases. The hospitals selected for the first phase are Llandough Hospital, Cardiff, West Wales General Hospital, Carmarthen, and Glan Clwyd Hospital, Bodelwyddan. These hospitals have been chosen as pilot sites because they are most suitable for early installation of robotic equipment. A further eight hospitals will be included in the second phase and the remaining 11 hospitals in Wales in the third, subject to approval by the Assembly.

The announcement was made by Jane Hutt, Minister for Health and Social Services, the National Assembly for Wales, during a visit to the pharmacy department at Llandough Hospital, which is in her constituency. She 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 cent of dispensing errors could be avoided by the use of automated dispensing systems.”

Ann Slee, chief pharmacist at Glan Clwyd Hospital, told Hospital Pharmacist that the installation of automated dispensing will release staff from the dispensary to the patient’s bedside, thereby improving medicines management at ward level. Additionally, automated dispensing should be able to improve turnaround times in the dispensary and reduce the incidence of medication errors.

Ms Slee said that, for automated dispensing to work, original packs had to be used. She added that the ability to release staff to wards will allow patients’ own drugs (PODs) to be used. The use of PODs, in combination with pharmacy staff managing the contents of drug lockers at the patient’s bedside, has been shown to reduce errors in drug administration from 10 per cent to 2.5 per cent.

At Glan Clwyd Hospital, the automated system will be used for both inpatient and outpatient dispensing and distribution services (ward box assembly). The use of automation for the pharmacy’s distribution services will provide more time for assistant technical officers to extend the ward top-up service throughout the hospital.

Ms Slee said: “Automated dispensing will create huge cultural changes for staff and it will radically change working practices.” She said that it is important to get the message across to pharmacy staff that their jobs are not threatened by the introduction of automation.

Pharmacy staff will receive training on how the automated robots work and how to correct any problems, said Ms Slee.

Jeremy Savage, chief pharmacist at West Wales General Hospital, told Hospital Pharmacist: “The automated dispensing project is a key element of our strategy to improve services to patients. This project represents the most significant single investment in new technology for pharmacy that will place Wales alongside the best in the United Kingdom.”