The Discharge Medicines Service (DMS) “has been a real success in Liverpool”, with 124 pharmacies processing thousands of patient referrals since the service launched in February 2021, Liverpool local pharmaceutical committee (LPC) chief officer Matt Harvey told C+D on Wednesday (April 6).

According to Liverpool LPC’s data, pharmacies in the area have so far intercepted 1,721 prescriptions that had been dispensed prior to the patient being admitted to hospital.

Under the DMS, hospitals can digitally refer patients to community pharmacies for advice on newly prescribed medicines or changed prescriptions.

 

Read more: Pharmacists in England share mixed feelings for DMS service, one year on

 

On receiving a referral, pharmacies are required to complete a three-stage process, which includes:

• undertaking a clinical review within 72 hours of receipt of the referral

• checking and resolving (if necessary) the first prescription issued on discharge

• checking the patient’s understanding of their medicines regimen, either in the pharmacy or remotely, via telephone or video consultation.

“Just over 15% of DMS stage 1 completions identified a discrepancy with the discharge that needed to be resolved with either the hospital or [GP] practice,” Mr Harvey explained.

“Around 22% of stage 2 completions identified a discrepancy with the first prescription to be received from the practice.”

“Liverpool pharmacy teams have been very busy rectifying these discrepancies to ensure patients receive the right medication following discharge and I am proud of what they have achieved,” Mr Harvey said.

 

Leading the way

 

Last week, NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) revealed that between February and December 2021, community pharmacy teams prevented more than 3,500 hospital readmissions within 30 days of discharge, as part of the DMS.

The north west of England – which includes Liverpool – was responsible for almost 35% of all DMS referrals countrywide, according to NHSE&I.

Mr Harvey told C+D that Cheshire and Merseyside has “a very successful track record… of pharmacies receiving discharges from local trusts” and “most trusts were already sending referrals prior to the launch of DMS”.

As a result, “it was a very straightforward switch over to the new service last February”. 

 

Read more: DMS: How we made a success of the hospital to pharmacy referral service

 

The LPC is now using the “vast amount of data” and feedback from pharmacies to work with the local trusts and Liverpool clinical commissioning group (CCG) to “further highlight the operational challenges around discharge referrals, as well as further improve the visibility of such referrals across the whole of primary care,” Mr Harvey explained. 

“The aim of this is to simplify the process for pharmacies and reduce the number of discrepancies being identified by both community pharmacies and general practices.”

 

“Grateful and happy”

 

Mr Harvey said he was “grateful” to pharmacy teams “completing provisions despite the ongoing challenges being faced by them over the course of the pandemic”.

“I am also very happy with the quality improvement work being done at trust and CCG level to truly improve the discharge pathways for patients in the city,” he added.

In February, pharmacists shared mixed feelings about the DMS, one year after it was launched in England.

While some praised the DMS for facilitating better communication between hospitals and pharmacies, others panned it, with one Birmingham pharmacist telling C+D that her pharmacy had not received a single referral despite signing up for the service “immediately” after it launched.