Palliative Care Formulary now available on MedicinesComplete

The Palliative Care Formulary is now available on MedicinesComplete, following the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s (RPS’s) acquisition of its publisher, PalliativeDrugs.com, in August 2018.

The Palliative Care Formulary was first published in 1998. The RPS said that the migration of the formulary to MedicinesComplete puts the content in an “enhanced, user-friendly format” offering organisation-wide access for hospices, trusts and institutions.

Andrew Wilcock, former managing director of PalliativeDrugs.com and chief clinical editor of the Palliative Care Formulary, said it had been “very rewarding to see [it] emerge in its new iteration as a fully modern online resource”.

“I’m hopeful that this valuable prescribing information will reach more palliative practitioners than ever before and I look forward to seeing the service go from strength to strength over the coming years,” he said.

Paul Bennett, chief executive of the RPS, said: “Providing care and support for people with a life-limiting illness is one of the most important roles of a health professional. I am delighted that we are enhancing the support we can give to practitioners though the Palliative Care Formulary”.

The incorporation of the Palliative Care Formulary follows the November 2018 launch of RPS Wales’s policy on improving palliative and end-of-life care. Led by Elen Jones, policy and practice lead at the RPS, the policy makes eleven recommendations to ensure that patients approaching the end of their lives can access a full range of pharmacy services.