SW AHSN Holds Successful Medicine Support Service Re-Launch Event in Cornwall

On 11 January 2017 the SW AHSN brought 50 pharmacists from hospital, community and general practice together in Cornwall for the ‘Medicine Support Service Re-launch Event’.

Over the past 14 months, the SW AHSN has been working with Royal Cornwall Hospital and the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Local Pharmaceutical Committee to improve the process of transfer of care around medications, when a patient is discharged from hospital. This service was then renamed ‘The Medicines Support Service’ to align with similar services across the South West.

The free evening event gave pharmacists the opportunity to network, understand each other’s perspectives and work together on solutions for the benefit of the patient.

Sally Miles, Lead Clinical Pharmacist, Royal Cornwall Hospital NHS Trust said: “It was a great evening working collaboratively with my community pharmacist colleagues to enhance patient safety, around the transfer of information about patients’ medicines at discharge from the hospital. I learned a great deal, including the process whereby discharge information around medicines is dealt with by community pharmacists and GP pharmacists.”

Helen Belben, Medicines Optimisation Lead & Project Manager for AF, SW AHSN said: “Patients discharged from hospital are often unclear about how to take their medication or how it treats their condition. This can lead to medication being misused or wasted and the patient’s health being compromised. It was, therefore, great to have so many keen and dedicated pharmacists from all sectors together in one room to work on improving the transfer of care for patients. We received lots of positive feedback from delegates and plan to hold similar events in Somerset and Devon in the next few months.”

The Medicine Support Service project has made significant progress and the collaboration with our seven acute NHS Trusts, three LPCs and PharmOutcomes has led to the following outcomes:

• One acute trust rolling out an electronic referral system across all wards
• One trust carrying out a pilot on one ward with rollout planned later this year
• One trust beginning their pilot in April
• Three trusts preparing for pilots later this year
• The development of a SW AHSN Medicine Support Service Implementation Support Pack to share with the national AHSN Network and other relevant organisations.

For more information on the project please contact info@swahsn.com