By East and South East England Specialist Pharmacy Services (September 2012)
Optimising medicines use in care pathways using pharmacy support and the Medicines in Commissioning Toolkit are two key interlinked resources that have been revised and updated to support commissioners to help ensure care pathways which involve medicines deliver improved patient outcomes, are safe, use clinical and cost effective treatment options, offer patient choice and the best patient experience
The resources emphasise the delivery of QIPP and the NHS Outcomes Framework, and, above all, demonstrate how to maximise patient outcomes through medicines optimisation.
Both will also be useful to service providers, helping them to identify and address medicines-related issues in service specifications and comply with Care Quality Commission (CQC) Outcome 9 (Medicines Management).
In the current, rapidly changing, NHS environment these documents will provide a valuable starting point for local discussions between pharmacists and commissioners about the benefits and practicalities of commissioning medicines management support and appropriate pharmaceutical care for patients prescribed.