Polypharmacy programme: getting the balance right
1,500 primary care clinicians have been supported by our polypharmacy programme leading to a reduction in the amount of inappropriate medication prescribed to patients.
The Health Innovation Network’ s national Polypharmacy Programme aims to support local systems and primary care networks( PCNs) to identify patients with problematic polypharmacy through Structured Medication Reviews( SMRs). SMRs are comprehensive reviews of a patient’ s medication, considering all aspects of their health. The clinician and the patient agree on the best course of treatment and look at how to reduce the number of medications a patient takes without compromising their health.
In our region we have worked with the West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Boards( ICBs), to support a number of task and finish and medicine optimisation groups promoting the programme and tackling this issue.
We were instrumental in developing, promoting and supporting primary care clinicians across our region to
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Hospital to community
Sickness to prevention