Courtesy of NICE
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has amended a draft quality standard on medicines management for people receiving social care in the community, removing a proposal that pharmacies should consider supplying printed medicines administration records for patients.
The standard now states that commissioners should “ensure that they commission services that follow robust processes for ensuring that care plans include a record of the medicines support needed by a person”.
NICE made the change based on feedback given on the draft quality standard following a consultation, including comments from the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC).
In its response, the PSNC said the proposal that pharmacies should consider supplying printed medicines administration records represented an “unfunded cost”, unless it was covered by a locally commissioned service.
The PSNC suggested that local authorities should be reminded of the need to commission such services from community pharmacies to support the implementation of the quality standard.
The NICE quality standard, which was initially published in July 2018, includes four quality statements: assessing medicines support needs; communication that medicines support has started; recording medicine support needs; and managing medicines-related problems. It highlights that adults receiving medicines support in the community from a social care provider should have their GP and supplying pharmacy informed that support has started.
