Plans launched for seven day hospital pharmacy services

NHS England has set out its plans for enhancing the quality of care and improving access to seven-day pharmacy services for patients in acute hospitals. The report, ‘Transformation of Seven Day Clinical Pharmacy Services in Acute Hospitals’ sets out a vision where hospital pharmacy services could operate more efficiently and safely, along with 13 key recommendations of how clinical pharmacy services in hospitals can be strengthened – particularly at weekends – to benefit patients. For the first time this report outlines why this move is important and the benefit to patients. It sets the context of seven-day clinical pharmacy services within the 10 seven day hospital clinical standards and the Hospital Pharmacy Transformation Plan (HPTP) – as set out by Lord Carter. It also identifies barriers that need to be overcome, provides examples of how hospitals are doing this and explains what national and local leaders can do to expedite implementation. In a joint foreword, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, Keith Ridge, National Medical Director, NHS England, Prof Sir Bruce Keogh and Medical Director, NHS Improvement, Kathy McLean welcome the comprehensive report, which is aimed at clinicians, managers and a range of national bodies. It explores solutions for national and local health providers, including hospital chief pharmacists, Health Education England, NHS Improvement, Academic Health Science Networks, National Institute for Health Research and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. It calls for patients admitted through urgent and emergency routes, high risk individuals and those requiring a discharge on weekends, to receive prompt medication reviews through targeted clinical pharmacy services in line with the seven day services clinical standards. To avoid variations in hospital services, the optimal use of medicines, technology, workforce and collaboration within and across staff and primary care organisations – needs to be activated. In addition, new professional guidance for pharmacists should be introduced and solutions provided for delivering pharmacy services outside of normal working hours. Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, Keith Ridge, says: “This report acknowledges that at various times some hospitals are under-utilising the expertise available from clinical pharmacy services. Whilst there is no uniform approach for all hospitals, it is vital that expertise on medicines is available to all patients in hospital in a timely manner seven days a week to improve the patient experience, safety and clinical efficiency. This is in line with the Five Year Forward View commitment of the NHS to provide hospital patients with access to seven-day services.”