Date
26 June 2024Location
Online via WebEx at 12:30-14:00About the event
This interactive session was part of the ‘Medication Safety Across the System’ (MSATS) series aimed at healthcare professionals, working in any sector with a role or passion for medication safety and/or involved in medicines use.
Our speakers shared innovative practices addressing the safe use of medicines across care boundaries, to inspire and equip the audience ready for translation and replication in their locality.
Emma and Anna discuss why you should be part of our next MSATS webinar.
Why it’s important
There are known risks when medicines use crosses boundaries of care. Additional risks are introduced with complexities related to medicines formulation, licensing, availability and, use in specialist populations and conditions.
Measures aimed at reducing the risk of harm related to these complexities, such as standardisation and targeted communications require a collaborative and system wide approach to ensure sustainable safety improvements.
What was covered:
- A discussion of factors that add complexities to the prescribing and supply of medicines, with a focus on liquid medicines.
- A ‘lived experience’ to understand the impact of these complexities when individuals cross care boundaries and continue their medicines.
- Shared exemplar practices where standardisation or communication tools have been used along the patient pathway to improve safety, enabling reflection and consideration for implementation at a local and system level.
- Opportunities to network with peers to inform the development of appropriate local and system wide responses, to enhance the safe use of complex and specialist medicines.
Learning outcomes:
- Articulate key safety issues related to the prescribing or supply of complex or specialist medicines when patients cross all care boundaries
- Define key safety considerations when prescribing , supplying and advising on administration of complex and specialist medicines, particularly when patients transfer across care boundaries
- Understand how standardising strengths and formulations of medicines can enhance safety at the prescribing interface
- Understand the impact of good written and verbal communication to other healthcare professionals, patients and carers along the patient pathway
- Reflect on examples shared and identify actions or responses to recommend locally, in order to improve safe practice.
Speakers
A range of speakers from SPS and other organisations helped to run this event.
Non-SPS Speakers
Stephen Tomlin
Director of the Children’s Medicines Research & Innovation Centre -CMRIC (Great Ormond Street Hospital)
Vice Chair – Joint Medicines Committee – RCPCH/NPPG
Keynote speaker – James Melville Ross
Dad to disabled twins Tommy and Alice, managing a complex combination of medicines at home
Dr Yincent Tse
Consultant Paediatric Nephrologist, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Nikki Smith
Head of Medicines Safety, Surrey Heartlands ICS
Ashifa Trivedi
Chief Pharmaceutical Officer’s Clinical Fellow, NHS London Procurement Partnership
SPS Speakers
Resources
Information presented in these resources is correct at time of recording. Current guidance should be followed.
Recordings
Webinar Recording
The need for standardisation
Mandy Wan introduces her project looking at dosing instructions on dispensed medicines labels. The results of this project are shared to act as a catalyst for healthcare professionals to reflect and take action towards safety improvements in their care setting and across the system.
Ensuring the safe prescribing of complex medicines across the interface in South East London
A presentation by Helen Cooper and Sheatha Abumehdi describing work to rationalise, optimise and, where possible, standardise prescribing of unlicensed specials across a system.
Digital solutions to support transition between care settings
Andy Fox, Chair of the ‘Medicines for Children’ programme, explains how they have created an app to support parents, particularly those looking after children with complex medicines regimes, safely manage their child’s medications.
Supporting clinical decision making where excipients in liquid medicines pose potential harm
Mohammed Abou Daya, Service Lead Pharmacist Women and Children at Barts Health NHS Trust, describes some of the potential risks that excipients may pose and signposts to resources to support clinical decision making.
Supporting healthcare professionals, in non-specialist locations, delivering care to patients on specialist medication’ – Innovative solutions to support the safe use of specialist mental health medicines
Jennifer Southern shares her innovative role as a mental health in-reach pharmacist, supporting pharmacy staff in an acute trust to manage complex medication issues across their local care boundaries.
Podcasts
Using a system wide approach to develop resources supporting the safe management of patients on complex medicines
Jo McMillan, Head of Medicines Optimisation, for North and Mid Hampshire within Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB, is discussing how her ICB took a system wide approach to developing resources which would raise awareness of the potential risks associated with clozapine. Although this example is specific to clozapine the learning can be applied to any complex medicine.https://www.hantsiow.icb.nhs.uk/your-health/medicines-optimisation/information-health-care-professionals/medication-safety
Empowering generalists and care-givers to ensure safer use of medicines in children across systems
Anna Bischler speaks to Nanna Christiansen, Chief Childrens Pharmacist Evelina, Guys and St Thomas’s NHS trust, Chair NPPG and Nicola Husain, Education & Training Lead, Neonatal & Paediatric Pharmacy Group. Together they explore strategies which may help to prevent harms associated with the use of specialist medicines, particularly in situations where patients are transitioning from one care setting to another.
Developing communication and mutual understandings between care settings
Henrietta Cresswell, Head of Pharmacy East Suffolk PCN, Benjamin Leung, Deputy Chief Pharmacist – West Suffolk Alliance Medicine Optimisation Team, Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board, and Alice Charles, Ward Services Pharmacy Technician at West Suffolk Hospital Foundation Trust & PCN Pharmacy Technician at Deben Health PCN discuss with Anna Bischler how developing good communication channels and mutual understandings between care settings can promote safer practices with medicines use.
Interface pharmacy teams supporting collaborative working between acute and primary care
A discussion exploring the roles of an interface pharmacist and pharmacy technician and how these roles can promote collaborative working across the system. Anna Bischler talks to 1. Deziah Streeton Senior Medicines Optimisation Pharmacy Technician- Interface & safety, West Suffolk Alliance, Suffolk & North East Essex ICB and Rotational Pharmacy Technician, West Suffolk Foundation Trust and 2. Anisha Sharma, Senior Interface Pharmacist, ESNEFT and SNEE ICB- Ipswich and East Suffolk,Alliance and North East Essex Alliance.
Community pharmacy perspective on the complexities of medication use across care boundaries
Jose Moss, Vice Chair of the Community Pharmacy Safety Group and Deputy Superintendent Pharmacist, Boots UK Limited, and Martin Sadr-Kazemi, Medication Safety Officer and Quality Assurance and Complaints Manager at Rowlands Pharmacy discuss the key issues affecting community pharmacy when ensuring the safe use of medicines across transfers of care.
Presentation Resources
Slides from the presentation are now available below.
Contact us
Please contact the Admin Team if you have any questions.