A leading pharmacist is campaigning for new ways to ensure prescription medicines are taken correctly by patients.
A lack of understanding of the need to take medication as prescribed, coupled with human failings such as patient forgetfulness, confusion, and fear, cost the NHS £300 million a year and is thought to be responsible for 13.6 % of all hospital emergency admissions*.
Now Andrew Burr, of Tamworth-based SpringPharm, has called on NHS leaders to introduce an integrated medicine management system – and has set them a challenge of getting a patient-centric system in place in just 18-months.
He said an integrated medicine management would have the potential to transform the way prescriptions are monitored and to alert prescribers when patients were failing to take vital prescription medicine.
Burr said: “To be blunt, the most expensive drug is the one the patient does not take. It leads to more ill health and admissions to hospitals which may well be avoided if the NHS was able to change prescription management procedures”.
A former Council Member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Burr laid-out his plans in an address to the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board.
In his presentation, he said the major problem is that most medication management is undertaken in the home, where the patient can be isolated. In some cases, patients fail to take their medication correctly, or at all. This may be down to forgetfulness, lack of understanding or fear.
He said: “We must put the patient at the heart of medicine management. What if we could install a machine in the home to automatically dispense medicines? One that reminds patients to take the prescribed medication and one that immediately alerts health care professionals if they are not taken.
“By working together, we could keep patients out of hospital and reduce costs. The technology is proven and available, but technology is only ever an enabler.
“My company, an independent pharmacy business, has been serving the Tamworth community for over 50-years. We have the people, the knowledge and the resources to pilot the concept of a local medication management hub. This approach could establish Staffordshire as an exemplar of leading medical management for the UK and Europe.”
Burr told the ICB that this could be done inside 18 months.
He added: “A new patient centric integrated medication model would change the face of health care. We have an incredible opportunity for Staffordshire to lead the way. A new patient centric integrated medication model would change the face of health care.”
SpringPharm has a community pharmacy treating 100,000 patients in Lichfield and Tamworth. The company was set a challenge in 2021 to support the role out of the Covid vaccination programme in the area. Burr said that within 12 months over 60,000 vaccinations were administered.
He told health leaders: “We did this together by working differently, we showed health care doesn’t have to stay within fixed boundaries. We broke down walls and put the patient at the very centre. We can do this again with medication management.
“A new patient centric integrated medication model would change the face of health care. We have an incredible opportunity for Staffordshire to lead the way. A new patient centric integrated medication model would change the face of health care.”
For media enquiries contact Nigel Howle. Telephone 0776 2043436, email [email protected]
Notes to editors
*Statistics from International Journal of Pharmacy Practice study, 2018.
You can see Andrew Burr speaking at the meeting here – https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/841145838/72d4840106/privacy