Naomi Mews
A pilot project led by Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) colleagues in Jersey to support patients transferring from secondary to primary care has won the inaugural One Gov Partnership Award.
The ‘Transition of Care (Discharge Medicines Use Review)’ pilot, which ran from January 2018 to June 2018, aimed to reduce delayed discharge from and readmission to hospital, as well as tackle medicines wastage. It was developed by RPS Jersey together with the States of Jersey, the parliament and government of the island, alongside community pharmacies, GP surgeries the local care federation.
Pharmacist-generated patient discharge summaries were produced for consenting patients from four medical wards at Jersey General Hospital. These were shared with the patients’ preferred community pharmacy and their GP. Targeted medicines use reviews were also provided to patients for their first month post-discharge.
Naomi Mews, RPS Jersey lead, said that 30 of the 32 pharmacies in Jersey took part in the pilot and, during the six months it ran, an average of 1.5 medication related interventions were made for each patient. More than 75% of these, Mews added, were deemed to have had the potential for a significant impact on the patient’s health. Mews also said that the pilot generated nearly £7,000 of medication-related savings.
Speaking to ITV News in Jersey at the time of the pilot’s launch, Ash Soni, president of the RPS, said that such schemes were “cost effective — you save about £6 for every pound you invest”.
Liz Arthur, pharmacy manager at Island Pharmacy and the pilot lead, said that the project “showcased how the experience for the patient, and provision of care, can be greatly enhanced with improved collaboration and sharing of information between healthcare sectors”.
“Through this project, the skills, knowledge and value of the pharmacy profession as an integral part of the healthcare team has been demonstrated. This award is a wonderful recognition of all the work undertaken by the whole pilot team in developing a concept into a fully implemented scheme.”
The scheme will now be rolled out as a standard service for all patients discharged from Jersey General Hospital.
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