This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Pharmacy service to save NHS £517.6 million
A scheme launched by the Department of Health in 2011 has been so successful that in its first five years it will save NHS England £517.6 million in the long-term.
The scheme, New Medical Service (NMS), is free and involves community pharmacists helping patients to take new medicines.
According to lead research Rachel Elliott from the University of Manchester, it has improved medicines adherence by 10 per cent.
Even in the short term the scheme has saved the NHS £75.4 million, the team has said. The scheme involves pharmacists being paid £24.60 each time they look after a patient as part of NMS.
The study was conducted by experts at the Universities of Manchester, Nottingham, UCL and a Patient and Public Representative.
The team used self-reported adherence at 10 weeks - considered the minimum time required to demonstrate behavioural change in a sample of 503 patients.
From inception of the NMS to the end of August 2016, 3.59 million consultations have been claimed for with over 820,000 in the year 2015/16.
Of 11,495 community pharmacies in England, 91.2 per cent had delivered the NMS to at least one patient between November 2011 and January 2014.
According to previous research, the costs to NHS England of non-adherence is over £930 million per year in just five diseases: asthma, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol/coronary heart disease, hypertension and schizophrenia.
To tackle the problem, the Department of Health launched the service six years ago.
Elliott said: “On the basis of the evidence we have gathered for this research, we strongly recommend that NMS should continue to be commissioned in the future.
“Our study suggests NMS increased patient medicine adherence compared with normal practice, which translated into increased health gain at reduced overall cost.
“This is a simple intervention which has been popular with community pharmacists and patients, and is transferable into most therapeutic areas.
“Some medicines, for example, can have early adverse effects but they subside over time such as anti-depressants.
“And we also believe these findings are likely to have applicability to other health care systems, including those based on insurance.”
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