What is Medicines Management?
The use of medicines is the most common way that patients are treated in the NHS. In primary care, over 600 million prescriptions are dispensed each year, with a cost of over £5bn. Medicines make a big difference to the health of people and pharmacists play a major role in supplying these products and helping patients get the most out of using their medicines.
Medicines management is all about making sure that patients get the most out of using their medicines. Medicines management is all about creating a system of processes and behaviours that determines how medicines should be used by patients and the NHS. Effective medicines management has patients as its primary focus ensuring that services are better targeted and that patients are better informed.
Medicines management covers a broad range of services and activities from ensuring that patients get the right medicines (reducing risks), promoting clinical and cost-effectiveness through guidance and audit (improving quality) reducing waste (saving resources) and ensuring better compliance and concordance in medicines taking (enhancing effectiveness).
Pharmacists have always been involved in supporting patients take their medicines, but it was not until the Department of Health's NHS Plan and Pharmacy in the Future policy set out the importance that was to be given to a structured plan to offer medicines management services.
A number of major medicines management initiatives are now taking place. The National Prescribing Centre is managing a programme called the Medicines Management Collaborative. The programme supports Primary Care Trusts introduce medicines management services in a structured manner.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, with a coalition of other pharmacy organisations, is running a community pharmacy medicines management project. The trial focuses on the role that pharmacists can play in the treatment of coronary heart disease. Under the PSNC's plan, pharmacists undertaking medicine management will be remunerated for it and will carry out structured discussion with patients at regular intervals assessing their prescribed medicines and feed the results back to the GP.
Medicines management is going to be more important as PCTs work towards their target of offering such services on a regular basis by 2004. Patients are going to be more likely to be receiving such services, which will mean better health care and making full use of the local community pharmacist.
