Hospital Pharmacist
Vol 11 No 8 p308
September 2004

News summary

Patients not satisfied with medicines advice they receive on leaving hospital

Hospital patients are not satisfied with the information and advice they receive about their discharge medicines, according to the results of a recent survey carried out by the Healthcare Commission. Only 39 per cent of the 88,308 adult patients who completed a questionnaire said they were given a full explanation of the possible side effects of their medicines. Nearly a quarter did not completely understand the indication for the drugs that they took home, with another 7 per cent saying that the purpose of their discharge medicines was not explained to them at all. These statistics are slightly worse than when the survey was last carried out in 2002.

The survey also revealed that nearly half of all adult patients said they would have liked to be more involved in decisions about their care and treatment while in hospital. It also showed that there was a delay in discharging 38 per cent of patients, with the main reason (62 per cent) for this being the need to wait for medicines.

Alison Ewing, member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Council and clinical director of pharmacy at Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust told Hospital Pharmacist that the survey results show that there is a real need for ward-based clinical pharmacy services. She stresses that having teams of pharmacists and technicians take accurate medication histories and counsel patients during their stay obviously improves patients’ knowledge about their drugs. “The increasing use of automation and IT is freeing up time for these important service developments,” she added, “but more funding is required if the full potential of pharmacy staff to help patients understand their discharge medicines is to be realised.”

“Adult inpatients” was one of five surveys conducted during 2004. Others covered the care received by young patients, those accessing mental health services, those using primary care trusts and those using ambulance services. Further details about the surveys (including tables showing breakdowns of the responses for each trust) can be found at www.healthcarecommission.org.uk