Medicine optimisation & safety
Our medicines optimisation & safety programmes aim to help patients get the maximum benefit from their medicines, ensure medicine use is as safe as possible and reduce waste.
Medicines play a crucial role in maintaining health, preventing illness, managing chronic conditions, and curing disease, which is why they are the most common intervention in healthcare. Most people take medicines at some point in their life. Medicines are beneficial and we want people to get the best from them.
Medicines optimisation looks at the value that medicines deliver, making sure they are clinically-effective and cost-effective. It is about ensuring people get the right choice of medicines, at the right time, and are engaged in the process by their clinical team (NHS England).
Medication-related incidents remain one of the most frequently reported categories of patient safety incidents, accounting for about 10% of reported incidents. Medicines safety focuses on reducing risks of errors and harm associated with medicines and keeping patients safe.
Our work
We are working with pharmacy colleagues in our three ICSs to implement medicines optimisation across our region. This includes helping to strengthen the way partner organisations work together across community, primary and acute care, to ultimately ensure safe and appropriate use of medicines. We also work with innovators in the pharmacy space as part of our Innovator support. Our Polypharmacy programme is supporting healthcare professionals to identify patients at potential risk and facilitate better conversations about medicines.
As part of our Patient Safety Collaborative, we are also focusing on Medicines Safety to reduce avoidable harm from medicines, especially from opioids, and improve chronic pain care. Our team are working closely with ICSs and stakeholders to deliver meaningful change.
Our portfolio of work is growing and evolving, and if you are interested in working with us, please get in touch.
Current programmes
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Polypharmacy
Supporting healthcare professionals to identify patients at potential risk and facilitate better conversations about medicines.
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Medicines safety
Patient Safety Collaborative programme supporting healthcare professionals to improve chronic non-cancer pain management by reducing high-risk opioid prescribing.
Read moreNews and case studies
Contact us
If you’d like to find out more about our work in medicine safety & optimisation or are interested in collaborating with us, get in touch.
