This in from IW NHS, in their own words, Ed
From 1st April patients requiring changes to their medication whilst under the care of a hospital specialist will have seen a difference in the way their medicines are managed and prescribed.
The Hospital Specialist will no longer give a new prescription during a patient’s consultation or following a hospital stay.
Changes sent to your GP
Instead, a summary of any recommended changes to medication will be sent to the patient’s GP for them to consider and make the necessary changes to their regular prescription, ready for the next usual collection time.
The summary (pink copy) will also be made available to the patient so they can see exactly what has been recommended and will be a useful checklist for carers and for community pharmacies to help patients with the changes. Patients will be able to go straight home after their appointment without the extra wait for medicines that are not needed urgently.
Making your medicines safer
The change in the way medication is prescribed following a hospital consultation will enable a more timely and appropriate way of updating medication following specialist advice.
It will allow GPs and community pharmacists to make all of the necessary checks into ongoing and past medicines, for safety and better health, ensuring that the medicines that are to be stopped or doses changed are finished before starting the new medicines.
Gillian Honeywell, Chief Pharmacist at St. Mary’s Hospital, said:
“The hospital pharmacy has traditionally been supplying all new or changed medicines straight after the consultation. This gives our patients no time to digest all of the information that they have been given by the consultant and the hospital pharmacist. With little or no written information to help them this can be confusing and sometimes worrying for them.
“We will now make sure that medicines which need to stop being taken can be finished first. This will improve safety by removing the risk of taking the new and old medicines together and reduce waste. Also, some of the medicines dispensed by the hospital pharmacy look very different from those supplied by a community pharmacy, even though they contain exactly the same drug, which does concern many of our patients.”
Discuss medicines with community pharmacist
The previous system relied on the information reaching the GP in time for the next prescription but this could not always be achieved if repeat prescriptions were nearly ready for collection. The new system removes the risks of continuing with old medicines at the same time as taking the new ones and gives patients time to ask their GP any questions they may have after their hospital consultation and before they collect their new prescription.
Patients also now have the opportunity to discuss their new medicines with their community pharmacist.
Most changes to medication are not urgent and do not need to be made immediately. However, if the change is urgent or medicines can only be supplied by the hospital, the hospital pharmacy will continue to dispense them immediately and make sure that the information reaches the GP within 24 hours.
Gillian added:
“We want to hear from patients if the new system doesn’t work for them or if they prefer the new system. We are always looking for ways to improve how we help patients to get the most from their medicines and the hospital pharmacy will still be available to answer any questions about changes to medicines, not just about the ones that we dispense at St. Mary’s.”
