Prescription Drugs

Department of Health written question – answered at on 21 November 2016.

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Photo of Royston Smith Royston Smith Conservative, Southampton, Itchen

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the amount of unused prescribed medication in (a) hospitals and (b) care homes.

Photo of David Mowat David Mowat The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health

Through its medicines optimisation programme, NHS England is working together with the Department, patients, the pharmaceutical industry and the NHS Business Services Authority to ensure patients get the best outcomes from their medicines, waste is reduced and taxpayers get the best value from the use of medicines in the National Health Service.

In June 2015, NHS England published ‘Pharmaceutical waste reduction in the NHS’, which highlights best practice from local initiatives with the purpose of encouraging others to introduce similar initiatives where appropriate.

From April 2017, pharmacy professionals will begin to be deployed in care homes through NHS England’s Pharmacy Integration Fund with funding provided for workforce development, including a prescribing qualification for pharmacists who work in care homes.

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