§ Dr. TongeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what estimate he has made of the impact on the primary care costs were hospital pharmacies permitted to dispense 28 day supplies of drugs to patients; [137752]
(2) if he will require hospitals to dispense drugs to in-patients from patient bed-side boxes; [137754]
(3) what plans he has to introduce 28 day original pack dispensing from hospital pharmacies; [137753]
(4) what plans he has to encourage patients to take with them all medicines they are taking when admitted to hospital. [137856]
§ Ms Stuart"Pharmacy in the Future—Implementing the NHS Plan" (a copy of which is in the Library) makes clear that we expect National Health Service hospitals in England to review their pharmacy systems to make them efficient, timely and safe, and more patient focused.
To see that changes are made, NHS Executive regional offices will be rolling out a medicines management performance management framework specifically for hospitals later this year and the Department will be establishing a collaborative programme in order to spread and share best practice. This is likely to include, in appropriate cases, the use of medicines which patients bring into hospital on admission and self-administration schemes on wards (including the use of patient bed-side boxes). Hospitals are also likely to dispense medicines on discharge and to out-patients more frequently in complete original packs. Many such packs are designed by their manufacturers to provide a course of treatment lasting 28 days, although this varies from product to product, and the quantity to be prescribed for any given patient must, of course, reflect their clinical needs.
Re-engineering systems in this way will reduce waste and improve the cost effectiveness of the NHS's spending on medicines generally. It may well involve spending being incurred within hospitals which was previously incurred within primary care. The size of any such shift will vary from place to place depending on current practice and on the nature of new arrangements agreed locally. Work is under way, co-ordinated by NHS Executive regional offices, to ensure that local health commissioners and hospitals work together to ensure suitable funding arrangements are in place.
§ Dr. TongeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to ensure that hospital pharmacies conform with EU Directive 92/27/EEC on patient information; and what the estimated costs of such compliance are. [137751]
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§ Ms StuartThe Directive was incorporated into United Kingdom law by The Medicines (Marketing Authorisations etc.) Regulations 1994. These regulations apply to all people involved in the supply of medicines, including hospital pharmacies. It is the responsibility of the Medicines Control Agency to investigate suspected breaches of those regulations. We hold no information nationally on the cost to hospitals of meeting their obligations under these regulations.