Welcome to the latest episode of Talking Meds on the PrescQIPP podcast, engaging conversations about medicines-related dilemmas. 

Today, your host Jonathan Underhill talks to Clare Howard, Clinical Lead for Medicines Optimisation at Health Innovation Wessex, about the development of the Repeat Prescribing Toolkit she led on behalf of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and Royal College of General Practitioners. 

The toolkit was commissioned by NHS England in answer to recommendation 7 of  the National Overprescribing Review, to help practices improve the consistency of their repeat prescribing processes. There are 1.18 billion medicines prescribed and dispensed in Primary Care in England each year. While most people get their medicines without any issues, there are around 20-30,000 ‘probable avoidable’ harm incidents each year, of which around a quarter are related to medicines. Clare and Jonathan discuss the multiple ways this toolkit can help reduce the risk of these errors.

The NHS is a complex system, and repeat prescribing is a ‘WICKED’ problem (difficult or impossible to fix) as it involves human to human interactions. Clare and Jonathan acknowledge that while you can’t ‘fix’ it and completely prevent any errors, having a structured approach can help reduce the risk of those errors and make for a more efficient process (and happier patients and healthcare staff!)

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

Repeat Prescribing Toolkit:

https://www.rpharms.com/resources/repeat-prescribing-toolkit

National Polypharmacy Programme from Wessex Health Innovation Network

https://thehealthinnovationnetwork.co.uk/programmes/medicines/polypharmacy

Get details of upcoming ALS cohorts and book your place here. 

Useful related resources from PrescQIPP:

The PrescQIPP 'Practice Medicines Coordinators' e-learning course is recommended as a training resource for prescription clerks in the RPS/RCGP Repeat Prescribing Toolkit.
PrescQIPP Practice Medicines Coordinators e-learning course (Pay per use)

PrescQIPP Bulletin 325: Empowering patients to manage their repeat prescriptions

PrescQIPP Bulletin 292: Repeat prescriptions

A new episode of Talking Meds will be available every other Friday.
If you have feedback or suggestions for future topics and guests please submit them to talkingmeds@prescqipp.info

PrescQIPP is funded by the NHS for the NHS, and our aim is to improve medicines-related care for patients. We do this by producing high quality evidence-based resources and training, and by facilitating networks between NHS organisations and professionals.

The majority of pharmacists and other healthcare professionals across the UK can access our resources by registering and logging on to our website www.prescqipp.info. If you have any difficulty accessing the website you can email help@prescqipp.info and we’ll aim to sort things out for you.

Find out more about PrescQIPP here: www.prescqipp.info