Hospital Pharmacist
Vol 11 No 4 p125
April 2004

News summary

Minister announces boost for medicines management

Twenty trusts in England are now to take part in the Hospitals Medicines Management Collaborative, doubling the number originally set to participate. The announcement was made at the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists’ conference at Hinckley, Leicestershire, on Friday 26 March by Rosie Winterton, Minister for Health. Each trust involved will receive up to £40,000, representing a total investment of £800,000. The money is to be spent establishing multidisciplinary partnerships to develop ways of delivering better medicines management across organisations.

The decision to double the number of trusts involved was prompted by the high quality of applications received, Ms Winterton said. Applications were assessed against criteria that included the five aims of:

· Helping patients and the hospital trust to get the best from their medicines
· Optimising patient care in accordance with accepted local and national guidance
· Improving communication systems for disseminating information on medicines management
· Increasing multidisciplinary involvement and making the best use of the
pharmacy team
· Developing approaches that increase the clinical and cost effective use of
medicines

Also at the conference, Ms Winterton reaffirmed the Department of Health’s commitment to creating the position of consultant pharmacist. A steering group, led by Jim Smith, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England, is to be set up to deliver guidance on this new role, she said.

Other announcements included the provision of an endorsed list of unlicensed medicines, the setting up of a multi-professional steering group to advise the Department of Health on developing a coherent framework for a pharmacy public health strategy and a proposed consultation on skill-mix. A fuller version of Ms Winterton’s speech is included in the report from the guild’s conference on p160.