Medicines Industry Partnership Programme

Background

NHS Spend on prescribing is £18.5 billion per year with around an 8% annual growth. Medicines optimisation supports patients achieve the best outcomes with their medicines and best value for the NHS. We recognised that there can be a disconnect between 3rd party companies doing Medicines Optimisation work and the NHS. We think we can solve it through the Medicines Industry Partnership Programme (MIPP). This new NHS ML medicines optimisation innovative service supports GP practices by providing pharmacist-led medication reviews. These reviews improve outcomes by reducing prescribing costs, enhancing prescribing quality, optimising treatments, and aligning with local formularies

With the NHS in ever-increasing need of practical support for patient care, the pharmaceutical industry is providing it through NHS-Industry Partnerships and collaborative working programmes. The MIPP creates an effective partnership in line with the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), NHS and Industry guidance. The MIPP service is delivered with partners and aims to deliver quality medication reviews focusing on key therapy areas to provide the most cost-effective medication for patients and improve quality in prescribing.

Action

As a pilot, NHS ML developed a collaborative working offer for Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB and their GP practices, to provide additional funded support for Medication Reviews delivered by Clinical Pharmacists. Commissioned by the third-party organisation with funding from Pharma Industry, NHS ML through an approach of involvement, integration and participation, supported the identification of QIPP savings, provided NHS governance of programme delivery, quality review of standard operating procedures (SOPs) & medication reviews and ICB support to allow monitoring and management of the service locally, with learning being embedded into practice. 

By working together with a common purpose and remembering always that our priority is to deliver better patient outcomes, the service aimed to:

• bring the capacity and skills to NHS systems to provide a range of outputs
• deliver a partnership and governance framework for the NHS organisations
• provide quality improvement reviews to ensure high quality delivery of the clinical services 
• ensure the services are in line with NICE, relevant national standards and local formularies and in agreement with all parties.  

Impact

25 practices in SSOT ICB signed up to the free medication review service. Early findings demonstrate 4,688 patient reviews have been completed across five therapeutic areas (blood glucose test strips, buprenorphine, glycopyrronium, oxycodone and venlafaxine). 3567 (76%) therapy changes made, 240 (5%) medicines deprescribed, 222 (5%) confirmed on first line product and 672 (14%) patients excluded. Annualised savings of £226,883 have been forecast.

As part of the NHS quality review framework provided by NHSML, a quarterly audit of reviews is undertaken. The initial sample audit confirmed all reviews were in line with the SOPs and all patients were contacted to inform them of changes. A process is in place to enable patients to contact 3rd party provider directly if they have any queries, minimising impact on GP practices. Some areas of improvement were identified relating to use of codes to confirm outcomes on clinical systems and ensuring any clinical monitoring is up to date. The collaborative approach enables confirmation of a high quality service and demonstrates the benefits to all parties as expected.