Services case study: Medicines optimisation service identifies over 15k of savings in eight weeks
Published on: 17th August 2017 | Updated on: 28th March 2022
Community pharmacists participating in a medicines optimisation service in Bath and North-East Somerset (BANES) have identified £15,421 of annualised savings in just eight weeks.
Currently 120 medicines optimisation opportunities have been identified by community pharmacies with 69 (£9,396 of savings) so far having been actioned by the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) pharmacists. The average annual saving per actioned suggestion is £136 (£9,396 / 69).
What does the service involve?
The pharmacist reviews the prescriptions they receive and identifies any areas where the medication can be optimised, for example:
- removal of unwanted medication;
- reduction in prescription quantities to synchronise with other medicines;
- changing formulation; or
- reduction in prescribing frequencies to synchronise with other medicines.
The patient is then consulted to ensure they understand and are happy with the suggested changes to their medicines. If the patient agrees, information from the consultation is entered on to PharmOutcomes, and a recommendation of what changes would benefit the patient is sent to the patient’s GP practice to be actioned by a CCG pharmacist. The CCG pharmacist will then examine the recommendation and either approve or reject the change.
How will the project be developed?
Following a successful eight weeks, the project will be delivered in an additional ten pharmacies. The community pharmacists involved in the service will receive further disease-specific medicines optimisation training to enable them to work collaboratively with the CCG pharmacist.
Read the BANES CCG and Avon LPC Executive Summary on the Medicines Optimisation Service
More information on this service can be found on the Community Pharmacy England Services Database.
For more information on this topic please email comms.team@cpe.org.uk
