Near Patient Pharmacy Services

Several wards at the West Suffolk Hospital are provided with a Near Patient Pharmacy Service. This is the provision of a complete and thorough patient focused pharmaceutical care package, from the patient's admission to the ward until their discharge from the hospital. In other words a patient-centred, ward based pharmacy service.

A team consisting of a clinical pharmacist and a technician devote the majority of their working day to co-ordinating all aspects of the pharmacy service for their wards. The Near Patient pharmacists take accurate drug histories, provide prescribing advice, make clinical interventions if necessary, rationalise patients medications, educate nursing and medical staff, get involved in discharge planning, and counsel patients, to name but a few of their responsibilities. The technicians are responsible for the supply aspects of the Near Patient pharmacy service. They optimise the use of patient's own drugs and provide patient counselling both for in-patients and patients going home.

The positive outcomes of the Near Patient pharmacy service are many. Patients understand more about their medicines and are more likely to comply with them at home. Problems with medication compliance are picked up much earlier in the patient's stay, and solutions found where possible.

The nursing staff on the ward have easier access to pharmaceutical advice, and are able to work much more closely with the pharmacy team to enhance patient care. They also have more time to devote to nursing duties because the responsibility for obtaining medicines is taken away from them.

The medical teams regularly consult the pharmacist for advice on prescribing, and the pharmacists play an important part in the education of junior doctors.

The Near Patient pharmacy service has been such a success that we are now looking to expand the service across the trust.

Interested in working as a Near Patient pharmacist or technician? Visit our current vacancies page for more information