Medicine Support Service pilot gets support from the public

Around half of all medicine prescribed to patients are not taken as intended, including taking the incorrect dosage, at the wrong time, or not at all. When medicines are not taken as intended a person’s condition isn’t treated correctly and could even get worse.

The Medicine Support Service, which is a free NHS service in the South West aims to address these issues and make sure patients are kept safe by understanding their medication to help them take it as prescribed after leaving hospital. The optional service allows the hospital to send the patients’ discharge summary straight to the community pharmacist to enable follow up with AMUR (a Medicines Use Review) or the New Medicines Service. This allows the community pharmacist to provide information to the person to allow them to get the best from their medicines and as a result helping them to stay healthy at home.

After conducting a short online survey with the help of a patient representative, the SW AHSN was able to obtain the views from members of the public on how useful and effective they thought the service would be. The majority of the results were positive and so the SW AHSN part funded a pilot project to introduce the Medicine Support Service to Yeovil District Hospital’s patients.

The first few patients from the pilot have already been seen by their community pharmacist and will be asked to give feedback on the service. The goal is for the Medicine Support Service to be rolled out to the other hospitals and community pharmacies in the region. Many hospitals in the region are beginning implementation.

Contact info@swahsn.com to find out more about the pilot.

See the flyer used to inform patients about the service whilst they are on the hospital ward.

View the Medicine Support Service video here

Partners: Yeovil District Hospital & Somerset Local Pharmaceutical Committee (LPC).

Supported by HealthWatch.