Discharge Medicines Service prevents over 21,000 hospital readmissions

Pharmacy press

New figures show that a total of 21,667 readmissions to hospitals have been avoided through the Discharge Medicines Service provided through community pharmacy. The statistics were released by the Department of Health and Social Care as part of written evidence submitted to an ongoing Health Select Committee evaluation of the Government’s commitments in the area of pharmacy in England.

Alastair Buxton, Director of NHS Services at Community Pharmacy England, said:

“This is another great demonstration of the value pharmacy teams bring to their patients and the NHS. However, if all hospital trusts referred into community pharmacy as consistently as the best performers, even more re-admissions could have been avoided.”