NHS Lanarkshire is launching an improvement programme and will embark on a campaign to improve the quality of prescribing practice by promoting the safe, effective and efficient use of medicines.

The campaign will encourage all prescribers to work with patients to consider whether all medicines are contributing positively to a patient’s health and wellbeing.

Prescribers will be supported to review patients on long term medication, especially those taking a large number of items.  This will ensure that patients are still benefitting from all of the medicines that they are being prescribed and that they are not at risk of side-effects due to the combination of treatments they are on.

The public campaign will raise awareness of people across Lanarkshire who take regular medication, encouraging them to take a fresh look at the medicines they are taking and to speak to their pharmacist or GP if they have any questions or concerns.

We know many patients may be unsure why each medicine has been prescribed or how often they should be taking it. Others may be concerned about their medicines or have stopped taking them but have never mentioned this to their pharmacist or GP.

At £200m, expenditure on medicines represents around 20 per cent of NHS Lanarkshire’s overall budget.

We know that we spend more per head of population than any other health board in Scotland with no obvious additional healthcare benefits to our population.

For further information about the campaign, visit Pulse Online.