New tools are now available to support GP practices and clusters in implementing polypharmacy reviews in GP practice.
A new GP Cluster report for Polypharmacy has been added to the Right Decision Service App and website, alongside an implementation toolkit and data pack.
These new resources accompany the current Polypharmacy Guidance, with both patient and clinician toolkits.
Why focus on polypharmacy?
Taking multiple medicines (known as ‘polypharmacy’) can be appropriate but can also be problematic – for example when increased risk of harm from interactions between drugs or between drugs and diseases outweighs the intended benefits.
Appropriate polypharmacy management can have a positive impact on:
- patient safety
- clinical effectiveness
- our environment
- costs
As more people are living longer with more complex multimorbidity (living with two or more chronic conditions), one in six unplanned hospital admissions are as a result of medicine related harm. A UK wide report stated that 15% of people are taking more than five medicines daily.
Optimising prescribing can reduce waste, supporting greener and more sustainable care, as outlined in our polypharmacy commitment in the NHS Scotland NHSScotland Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy.
Consultation on revised guidance
Look out for the updated version of the polypharmacy guidance, which will be published for consultation in April. All feedback on the revised guidance is welcomed.
Find out more
If you have any questions around implementing polypharmacy reviews in your practice, uploading the ‘7-Steps polypharmacy review template’ onto your GP clinical system or with any of the supporting material, please contact the Effective Prescribing and Therapeutics team at EP&T@gov.scot