More than 70 pharmacy colleagues attended the initial launch of the Transfer of Care Around Medicines (TCAM) pathway across Surrey on Tuesday, 8 October.
KSS AHSN is leading the implementation of the TCAM pathway across Kent, Surrey and Sussex. The initiative aims to keep patients safe when they transfer between care settings, providing a seamless transfer of a patient’s medicines information on discharge directly from the hospital to the patient’s choice of community pharmacy. This is achieved through the safe and secure PharmOutcomes platform, a system already familiar to Community Pharmacy.
Improving the transfer of information about medicines should help ensure patients continue to take the right medication once at home and reduce the incidence of avoidable harm and readmission.
Implementation across Surrey is phased, with referrals commencing from Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals and Surrey and Borders Partnership from 14 October, followed by Royal Surrey in December. Epsom & St Helier and East Surrey Hospitals are currently looking to implement in the early part of next year.
Speaking at the launch, James Wood, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy Surrey & Sussex said: “This project brings together the whole pharmacy workforce. When you bring community pharmacy and hospital colleagues together the results are powerful. TCAM has many benefits, including improving the safety of dispensing and being able to positively challenge prescribing.”
Rebecca Sharp, KSS AHSN Programme Manager, said that the programme demonstrates the value of collaborative working: “By bringing partners together from across care settings, the TCAM pathway will transform patient care and outcomes.”
Linda Honey, Surrey Heartland’s Interim Director of Pharmacy commented: “The implementation of TCAM will lead to massive benefits for our patients. By improving communication and collaboration between our Community pharmacy teams and our Acute Trust pharmacy teams we can lead to improved patient safety and outcomes.”
