An initiative linking hospitals with community pharmacies in Cheshire and Merseyside to improve patient safety has won a national award.
The initiative, called Transfers of Care Around Medicines (TCAM), ensures community pharmacies are notified when a patient is discharged who might need help understanding changes to their medicines following their stay.
TCAM in Aintree was set up through a partnership between Aintree University Hospital, part of Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, NHS England Local Pharmacy Network and the Innovation Agency, the Academic Health Science Network for the North West Coast.
The three partners were named joint winners of the prestigious PrescQIPP award for developing or working across health and care boundaries. PrescQIPP is an NHS-funded not-for-profit organisation that supports the best possible prescribing of medicines.
Some patients leaving hospital need advice and support to help them take their medicines correctly and safely. Around 60 per cent of patients have three or more changes made to their medicines during their stay in hospital, and only 10 per cent of older patients are discharged with the same medication they were taking before they went into hospital.
TCAM is improving quality of care by providing support for patients and their carers following a hospital discharge – and saved the NHS in Cheshire and Merseyside an estimated £15 million over the two years to winter 2019 by reducing hospital readmissions.
All 635 community pharmacies in Cheshire and Merseyside are participating in TCAM. This has been shown to help reduce the number of avoidable bed days in hospital in what is thought to be the most comprehensive rollout of the programme in the country.
Dr Liz Mear, Chief Executive of the Innovation Agency, said: “The scale and speed of the adoption of Transfer of Care Around Medicines in Cheshire and Merseyside is an inspiring example of the region’s healthcare professionals collaborating to improve the quality of care for patients and the efficiency of our health services.
“The initiative demonstrates the value of community pharmacies as a key part of our healthcare infrastructure. Transfer of Care Around Medicines has been adopted by the AHSN Network nationally as one of our key innovation programmes and I hope that Cheshire and Merseyside will be an exemplar to other regions, supporting the spread of this invaluable collaboration.”
Hassan Argomandkhah, Chair of Pharmacy Local Professional Network NHS England Cheshire and Merseyside, said: “We’re thrilled by the award because it recognises how much hard work went into the scheme. It proves how effective a good partnership can be – we’ve invested a lot of time and effort into building a strong collaboration with the Innovation Agency and Aintree University Hospital. Our success is down to the hard work of hospital and community pharmacy teams.”
Mandy Townsend, Associate Director for Patient Safety at the Innovation Agency, added: “We are delighted to win the award because it raises the profile of safe prescribing and patient safety. TCAM is an example of what we can do when we all work together across the whole health system by putting the patient’s needs first.”
Professor Alison Ewing, Clinical Director of Pharmacy for Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Ultimately, TCAM makes our patients safer, which is always our top priority. The success of TCAM demonstrates the benefits of partnership working and of developing systems and processes around the needs of our patients. I’m delighted that the hard work of the pharmacy team and our partners has been recognised with this award.”
Photo: Phil Jennings and Mandy Townsend, the Innovation Agency; Bruce Prentice, NHS England; Dave Thornton, Aintree University Hospital; Hassan Argomandkhah, NHS England; and, Connie Sharrock, the Innovation Agency.
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