South Blaby & Lutterworth PCN are currently supporting the network practices to deliver Structured Medication Reviews to eligible patients. If you fall into one of the identified cohorts of patients that would benefit from one of these reviews, you may be contacted by a member of the PCN Pharmacist team to arrange a call with a trained Pharmacist to undertake this review. Many of these calls are taking place during Enhanced Access to support the accessibility of these appointments and will be delivered over the phone.
Structured Medication Reviews
Structured Medicine Reviews (SMRs) are an evidence-based and comprehensive review of a patient’s medication, taking into consideration all aspects of their health. In a structured medication review clinicians and patients work as equal partners to understand the balance between the benefits and risks of and alternatives of taking medicines. The shared decision-making conversation being led by the patient’s individual needs, preferences and circumstances.
Problematic polypharmacy is where, for an individual taking multiple medicines, the potential for harm outweighs any benefits from the medicines and/or they do not fully understand the implications of the medication regime they are taking. This includes:
- medicines that are no longer clinically indicated or appropriate or optimised for that person
- combination of multiple medicines has the potential to, or is actually causing harm to the person
- practicalities of using the medicines become unmanageable or are causing harm or distress.
SMRs have benefits to people taking multiple medicines:
- improved experience and quality of care through being involved in the decision-making process and having a better understanding of the medicines they take
- less risk of harm from medicines (e.g. adverse drug events, side effects, hospitalisation or addiction)
- better value for local health systems (e.g. reduced medicine waste).
