Summary
NHS England is carrying out a national medicine safety scoping exercise to help inform further development of the Medicines Safety Improvement Programme.
Health Innovation Manchester (HInM), along with other regional Health Innovation Networks and the Patient Safety Collaboratives (PSCs) they host, is working on a year-long NHSE national medicine safety scoping exercise in the specialist areas outlined below.
The aim of the scoping exercise is to discover innovations being used locally that could be scaled up nationally to develop further areas of work as part of the Medicines Safety Improvement Programme to improve patient safety and reduce medicine related harm.
Psychotropic prescribing in learning disability and/or autism patients
All psychotropic prescribing which includes the following medicine groups:
- Antipsychotics
- Antidepressants
- Anxiolytics and hypnotics
- Lithium
- Anti-convulsant medication when used for non-epileptic indications (including valproic acid and carbamazepine)
- Stimulants e.g. methylphenidate
Medication safety and optimisation to reduce falls and / or fractures in frail patients
Broadly looking at the following areas:
- Stopping medicines that cause falls
- Stopping medicines that reduce bone strength
- Starting medicines that increase bone strength
- Alternatives to medicines in any of the above
HInM would like to hear from anyone that has examples of practice aimed to improve medicines safety and/or optimisation in these fields. They are particularly interested in quality improvement work (whether big or small), the planning stages, or full implementation regardless of whether these have been successful or not.
If you think you might have something to share, please contact Jane Ashworth: jane.ashworth@healthinnovationmanchester.com
For further information about the Medicines Safety Improvement Programme, please visit the NHS website.
