PrescQIPP resources to support ICBs with the national medicines optimisation opportunities

PrescQIPP provide a host of resources to help you optimise medicines, improve medicines safety and patient outcomes at all organisational levels from GP practice to NHS regions with everything in between to support you.

 

Who we are

PrescQIPP is a Community Interest Company (a social enterprise), solely funded by the NHS for the NHS. We operate on a not for profit basis for the benefit of patients and NHS organisations. We produce evidence based resources and implementation tools for medicines related interventions, with a “do once and share” ethos to reduce duplication and variation in the NHS.

 

Who are our subscribers, who can use our resources

We have a UK wide subscriber base that includes all the English Integrated Care Boards (ICBs); Health boards (HBs) in Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Jersey. The PrescQIPP membership benefits are available to ICBs/HBs medicines optimisation and finance teams, GP practice and PCN/cluster healthcare professionals, pharmacy teams within secondary care, community trusts, mental health trusts, care homes and community pharmacists.

 

National medicines optimisation opportunities

PrescQIPP has a wealth of resources to directly support 13 of the 16 NHS England national medicines optimisation opportunities for 2023/24 -

• Addressing problematic polypharmacy
• Addressing low priority prescribing
• Improving uptake of the most clinically and cost-effective medicines
• Using best value biologic medicines in line with NHS England commissioning recommendations
• Addressing inappropriate antidepressant prescribing
• Appropriate prescribing and supply of blood glucose and ketone meters and testing strips
• Identifying patients with atrial fibrillation and using best value direct-acting oral anticoagulants
• Identifying patients with hypertension and starting antihypertensives where appropriate
• Improving respiratory outcomes while reducing the carbon emissions from inhalers
• Improving valproate safety
• Optimising lipid management for cardiovascular disease prevention
• Reducing course length of antimicrobial prescribing
• Reducing opioid use in chronic non-cancer pain

 

For each priority we have a variety of implementation resources available, such as bulletins which summarise the current evidence base, detailed analysis of primary care prescribing data, as well as clinical webinars and e-learning. We have summarised all the resources available for each priority in a Hot topic.

 

The evidence based bulletins have practical advice and recommendations to optimise medicines for patients, for example antidepressants, diabetes testing strips, anticoagulation, reducing opioid prescribing in chronic pain and inhaler carbon footprint. Bulletins are supported by implementation tools such as patient information, clinical system searches, audits and presentations. They are all supported by a visual data pack with details of all organisational levels spending and potential prescribing savings to quickly assess the benefits of implementing a change in practice or medicine. Infographics provide cost data per 1000 patients supported by appropriate actions (Look, review, do) to reduce the spend.  Other data tools include visual scorecards, snapshot reports and visual analytics and data highlights.  

 

PrescQIPP regularly host and present lunchtime webinars with national clinical expert speakers to highlight current thinking and practice in a variety of topics e.g. lipid modification, depression treatment and management, improving inhaler technique for a more sustainable NHS.

 

There are currently 16 high quality, CPD accredited PrescQIPP e-learning courses available, topics include anticoagulation: stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation,  lipid modification, polypharmacy and deprescribing and reducing opioid prescribing in chronic pain.

 

A quick way to find all the relevant information on a particular topic is to search our webkits which have links to evidence based resources, webinars, data tools, as well as shared good practice and projects from our subscribers. Examples include polypharmacy and deprescribing, pain, respiratory care and high cost drugs (including biosimilars).

 

We are currently developing a medicines optimisation opportunities dashboard for ICSs which will enable them to monitor and track how they are progressing against their chosen opportunities.

 

The national medicines optimisation opportunities will be updated as required on an annual basis. Future topics that may be considered include: -

• addressing overprescribing by improving repeat prescribing processes in general practice
• getting the best value from nutritional product prescribing
• optimising the use of dressings, wound care products and stoma products
• stopping over medication of people with a learning disability, autism or both (STOMP) and reducing antipsychotic prescribing.

 

PrescQIPP have already produced bulletins, implementation tools and data analysis covering many of these areas so we are ready to continue to support ICSs to implement national medicines optimisation opportunities into the future.

 

Find out more 

Register on our website at https://www.prescqipp.info/login/

 

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