News | Polypharmacy

News

Patient safety improvement and medicines waste targeted by repeat prescribing toolkit

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society says the new resource is the first national good practice guidance on repeat prescribing published in 20 years.…

Published: 8 October 2024

News

NSAID prescribing in high-risk groups is a major source of avoidable harm, study finds

The study estimated that the practice could have caused more than 6,000 lost years of good health across England over a ten-year period.…

Published: 26 July 2024

News

Community falls pharmacists ‘effective and cost-efficient’ in optimising medicines for older patients, study suggests

Data from 92 people referred to a community falls pharmacist show an 8% mean reduction in the number of medicines prescribed per patient and anticholinergic burden score per patient reduced by 33%.…

Published: 25 July 2024

News

Pharmacists in primary care should be ‘enabled to prioritise’ structured medication reviews, says RPS

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society policy statement says primary care networks must recognise that they are accountable for delivering structured medication reviews.…

Published: 23 July 2024

News

Pharmacists to be central in delivery of campaign to cut prescribing of high-risk pain medicines

NHS Fife's 'Pain Talking' campaign is aimed at giving patients better control over chronic pain management and promoting non-medical treatment.…

Published: 10 June 2024

Opinion

A campaign to help patients discuss their medicines nearly doubled our medication reviews

The ‘Me and My Medicines’ campaign distributes information in nine languages to encourage Black and minority ethnic groups to raise concerns about their medicines.…

Published: 20 May 2024

News

Almost 40% of older adults with polypharmacy given inappropriate prescription when starting treatment for type 2 diabetes, study finds

In older patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus but no polypharmacy, 6.5% of patients were given a potentially inappropriate prescription.…

Published: 4 March 2024

Letter

Delivering sustainable medicines optimisation from research to practice

The 29th Health Service Research and Pharmacy Practice (HSRPP) Conference returned as a face-to-face event in Bradford, West Yorkshire, on 16–18 April 2023. This year’s theme was ‘Partnerships in Healthcare: Advancing Sustainable Medicines Optimisation’, which welcomed research addressing…

Published: 6 September 2023

Opinion

How pharmacist-led medication reviews reduced polypharmacy for patients on a virtual ward

By initiating medication reviews for frail patients taking ten or more medicines, Aziza Qureshi's team at North East London NHS Foundation Trust has saved money and improved the overall quality of life for many patients.…

Published: 7 August 2023

Opinion

Lest we forget lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

The pick of the month’s academic papers from Parastou Donyai, chief scientist at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.…

Published: 31 July 2023