Polypharmacy

A day in the life of a community-based pharmacist supporting older patients at home

Former hospital pharmacist Ana Armstrong would often find herself worrying about her older patients after discharge; so she decided to move sectors and help bridge care between hospital and home.…

Heart failure, older people and frailty

Diagnosis of heart failure and frailty can often be masked by other long-term conditions, making the delivery of treatment goals complicated.…

Pharmacists must work with others to roll back polypharmacy culture

The new English Desprescribing Network will bring together healthcare professionals and researchers to stamp out medicine-related harm.…

Lelly Oboh to represent RPS in government overprescribing review

Lelly Oboh will represent the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in a government review of overprescribing in the NHS.…

Two pharmacists to lead deprescribing network across England

A deprescribing network led by two pharmacists will be launched in June 2019 to help address the issue of inappropriate polypharmacy across England and make deprescribing a “normal thing to do”.…

Changing perceptions: how Canada’s deprescribing network is tackling polypharmacy

As England prepares to launch its own deprescribing network, the director of a similar scheme in Canada explains what they have done over the past four years.…

How to develop a doctor–pharmacist consensus on escalating medicine-related problems in hospitalised older adults

Pharmacists may be unsure how to, or who should, take action to address inappropriate polypharmacy in the hospital setting, but agreeing guidance with doctors can speed up care.…

Older people with terminal cancer ‘overprescribed’ preventative drugs

Older patients with cancer receiving end-of-life care may be overprescribed preventative medicines, study results have shown.…

RPS publishes guidance on the ‘significant public health challenge’ of polypharmacy

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has published ‘Polypharmacy: Getting our medicines right’ — new guidance for pharmacists and healthcare organisations involved with medicines.…

Post-discharge pharmacy follow-up helps reduce hospital readmission rates, study results suggest

Pharmacist-led telephone follow-ups after hospital discharge can reduce 30 and 90-day readmission rates in polypharmacy patients, according to a study published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.…