MEDICINES


taken in rolling this approach out to other countries. The benefits of adopting this approach are considerable: reduced medicines- related adverse events, improved quality as drug selection is based on safety and efficiency, and then cost. Conversely however, it also improves efficiency in terms of cost-effective drug selection, reduced stockholding, and reduction of out-of-date stock.


‘STEPSelect technology has been applied to procurement of medicines in many different therapeutic groups such as statins, erythropoietin stimulating agents (ESAs) and the use of biologicals in rheumatoid arthritis. Results with the method have invariably been positive in terms of support by clinicians and quality and cost reductions of prescribing, often in the region of 20-25 per cent per therapeutic group.’


KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER


MOIC has also begun an ambitious new series of study visits as part of its ‘Knowledge Transfer’ project, which will bring numerous pharmacists and pharmacy students, as well as senior leaders and policy makers from across the world to see how Northern Ireland’s hospitals manage medicines at home.


through the consistent delivery of medicines management best practices


One of the centre’s initiatives is the use of the Safe Therapeutic Economic Pharmaceutical Selection (STEPSelect) model to ensure that medicines selection is fundamentally based on clinically-related content such as efficiency, safety, documented effects on clinical end points and ease of administration.


‘This model has now been successfully developed for healthcare systems internationally,’ Professor Scott continues. ‘In fact, MOIC has recently reached agreement with the with the University Medical Clinic in Gdansk in Poland following discussions with the Ministry of Health to help improve its hospital’s management of medicines through a pilot of its ‘STEPSelect’ programme. This has, to date, proven to be a good model of care for patients in optimising medicines, but there are still gaps: hence one of the reasons for MOIC.


‘The agreement with the Polish hospital is the first concrete step


‘Knowledge transfer is another of our main activities at the moment,’ said Professor Scott. ‘We’ve already set up one scheme whereby two or three Spanish pharmacists are coming to NI for three week-placements each year and, in the next few months, the initiative will bring Swedish, Estonian, Spanish, and a dozen Egyptian pharmacists here, with many more to come. It’s a matter of pride for me personally to see the work we are doing here at MOIC yielding such early results, and we look forward to many more announcements in the coming months.


‘In conjunction with the University of Ulster we also have twelve Egyptian pharmacists coming to NI in August for a week and we’re hoping to set up a similar scheme with Queen’s University and students/pharmacists from Jordan.


‘These two initiatives are only the beginning,’ says Professor Scott, ‘as agreements with healthcare providers across Europe and the Middle East are in the pipeline, highlighting how Northern Ireland is now a world leader in the management of medicines for patients.


‘‘WE’RE ALSO VERY PLEASED TO SEE THE INTEGRATION OF PHARMACISTS INTO GP PRACTICES. WE ARE CONFIDENT THAT THIS WILL HAVE A POSITIVE IMPACT ON PATIENT OUTCOMES AND THERE’S NO DOUBT THAT IT’S A GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR THE PROFESSION.’ ’


‘Much has been done in recent years to improve the way medicines are used and Northern Ireland is now recognised as one of the leading regions in Europe in addressing the health and social care needs of the population through innovation in medicines optimisation.


‘I firmly believe that collaboration and integration are the key to improving patient care. We’ve recently had the fabulous success of Anne Friel and her team in the Western Trust and the fantastic work they’ve done in relation to care of older people in care homes and in intermediate care integration.


‘We’re also very pleased to see the introduction of pharmacists into GP practices. We are confident that this will have a positive impact on patient outcomes and there’s no doubt that it’s a great opportunity for the profession.’


The UK may have just decided to leave the EU, but there’s no chance of MOIC’s European collaboration


STATISTICS


* Ten days after starting a new medicine, 61 per cent of patients feel they are lacking information and only 16 per cent of patients who are prescribed a new medicine are taking it as prescribed, experiencing no problems and receiving as much information as they believe they need


* One in fifteen hospital admissions are medication related, with two thirds of these being preventable


* One in 20 prescriptions in General Practice contains an error, with a higher prevalence associated with prescriptions for the elderly and those taking ten or more medications


* Prescribing errors in hospital in-patients affect seven per cent of medication orders, two per cent of patient days and 50 per cent of hospital admissions


* An estimated £18m of medicines are wasted annually in Northern Ireland PHARMACY IN FOCUS - 11 dissipating.


‘MOIC is doing something new,’ Professor Scott concluded, ‘something extremely innovative and something which has a huge potential for Northern Ireland. We are world leaders in the development of best practice in the use of medicines and we are confident that we can export that experience across the world for the benefit of countries as diverse as Egypt and Poland.


An early win for the STEPSelect programme in Poland will allow us to export the programme across a range of European and middles eastern states whilst we are very excited about the opportunities which the study visits from across the world will yield here at home. In addition, our international medicines management model has already been picked up and rolled out across Norway. In all, the future for medicines optimisation and for the potential for MOIC is incredible.’ •


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