Medicines optimisation
Medicines play an important part in prevention of ill-health, treatment and management of long-term conditions and minor ailments. Appropriate investment in medicines is important to obtain the best quality outcomes for patients, but non-medical options such as life-style interventions play a crucial role and should be considered alongside medicines.
The vision for medicines optimisation in Lancashire and South Cumbria is based on the safe, personalised and sustainable use of medicines to enable the best outcomes for patients. It is a patient-centred approach to ensure that; patients get the right choice of medicines at the right time; patients are part of the decision-making process with their clinical team; decisions are made using robust evidence-based information.
All healthcare professionals should be mindful of medicines optimisation at every patient contact, since a collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach supports individual patients to get the best from their treatment.
The ICB medicines optimisation team supports healthcare professionals to:
- Improve patient outcomes
- Ensure medicines are used safely
- Review patients’ medication so that they are not taking medicines unnecessarily
- Reduce medicines waste
- Prescribe sustainably, reducing carbon impact where possible.
We provide information and guidance that is clinically relevant and useful for both clinicians and patients.
If you have any queries or concerns relating to medicines, please contact our ICB patient experience team: lscicb-fw.patientexperience@nhs.net