NICE TA875; Semaglutide for managing obesity: A briefing for ICSs
In March 2023 NICE published TA875: Technology Appraisal guidance for semaglutide (Wegovy®) for managing overweight and obesity. The guidance recommends semaglutide as an option for weight management when prescribed by a specialist service alongside a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity in adults if they meet the criteria specified. This briefing aims to provide advice to prescribers on how the treatment can be accessed and which patient groups are eligible to receive Wegovy®. The document explains some of the limitations of the treatment and the evidence base, as described by NICE and may help to manage patient expectations.
At the time of publication the product is not yet available in the UK.
Polypharmacy & Overprescribing: Opioid population health management
Prescribing for Population Health (PPH) is an ongoing series that aims to support ICSs to improve the health of the populations they serve. PPHs use prescribing data, biomedical literature and other data sources to provide new insights.
In recent years, there has been increasing concern regarding the overprescribing of opioids and associated harms. The RDTC has produced a series of publications as part of the Polypharmacy and Overprescribing theme reviewing opioid prescribing:
Each publication includes considerations and interventions for medicines optimisation teams and health systems. To avoid duplication across this series of overprescribing and polypharmacy opioid publications, the suggested actions have only been listed in the most relevant theme but may apply across all. We recommend reading all parts of the series sequentially to ensure the breadth of potential actions are known.
This is the third part of the series which focuses on the population health management of patients prescribed opioids, specifically in terms of deprivation level and the impact on sustainability and climate change.
Use the following links to access the first part in the series entitled ‘Opioid patient populations’ and the second in the series entitled ‘Opioid patient demographics’
Polypharmacy & Overprescribing: Opioid patient demographics
Prescribing for Population Health (PPH) is an ongoing series that aims to support ICSs to improve the health of the populations they serve. PPHs use prescribing data, biomedical literature and other data sources to provide new insights.
In recent years, there has been increasing concern regarding the overprescribing of opioids and associated harms. The RDTC has produced a series of publications as part of the Polypharmacy and Overprescribing theme reviewing opioid prescribing:
Each publication includes considerations and interventions for medicines optimisation teams and health systems. To avoid duplication across this series of overprescribing and polypharmacy opioid publications, the suggested actions have only been listed in the most relevant theme but may apply across all. We recommend reading all parts of the series sequentially to ensure the breadth of potential actions are known.
This is the second part of the series which focuses on the demographics of the patient populations prescribed opioids.
Use the following link to access the first part in the series entitled ‘Opioid patient populations’
Polypharmacy & Overprescribing: Opioid patient populations
Prescribing for Population Health (PPH) is an ongoing series that aims to support ICSs to improve the health of the populations they serve. PPHs use prescribing data, biomedical literature and other data sources to provide new insights.
In recent years, there has been increasing concern regarding the overprescribing of opioids and associated harms. The RDTC has produced a series of publications as part of the Polypharmacy and Overprescribing theme reviewing opioid prescribing:
Each publication includes considerations and interventions for medicines optimisation teams and health systems. To avoid duplication across this series of overprescribing and polypharmacy opioid publications, the suggested actions have only been listed in the most relevant theme but may apply across all. We recommend reading all parts of the series sequentially to ensure the breadth of potential actions are known.
In this first part of the series, the focus is on the patient populations prescribed opioids and the inter-relationships and dependencies between prescribing and the available metrics.
Formulary assessment – Morphine sulfate (Actimorph) orodispersible tablets
Formulary assessment tools are templates to support local decision making. They list NICE guidance, MHRA safety advice, and other relevant high quality advice and guidelines relevant to making decisions for local formularies.
The templates are pre-populated with useful information to reduce duplication of effort, with space for the addition of local information as appropriate. The purpose of the document is to support consistent decision making by formulary groups and APCs.
This information is produced for use by NHS healthcare professionals and RDTC stakeholders.
Drugs for Dementia
Overview
This report looks at prescribing trends in primary care for Drugs for Dementia at SICBl and ICB level with particular focus on low strength antipsychotics. Prescribing data is weighted with QoF registers.
If you have any queries about the content of the report please contact us at nuth.nyrdtc.rxsupp@nhs.net
Frequency
Quarterly
Data Period
October 2019 to September 2022
Optimising the use of morphine 10mg/5mL oral solution in primary care (Update)
Overview
Medicines in Practice is a series of evidence–based publications specifically designed to support stakeholder medicines optimisation services. The series aims to maximise health gains through the optimum use of medicines, by influencing and changing prescribing behaviour.
Opioids are effective for acute pain and pain at the end of life, but there is little evidence of their effectiveness for long term pain. This document supports primary care teams to review patients receiving regular large quantities of morphine 10mg/5mL oral solution and includes advice on how these patients could be managed.
This publication was updated in September 2022 to include opioid equivalence information to align with the updated Opioids Aware information, and information on safety issues identified with morphine oral solution 10mg/5mL. This update also highlights the availability of the NHSBSA opioid dashboard which can be used to identify patients for review.
Download the full review below to read more.
Formulary assessment – melatonin (Adaflex) for ADHD
Formulary assessment tools are templates to support local decision making. They list NICE guidance, MHRA safety advice, and other relevant high quality advice and guidelines relevant to making decisions for local formularies.
The templates are pre-populated with useful information to reduce duplication of effort, with space for the addition of local information as appropriate. The purpose of the document is to support consistent decision making by formulary groups and APCs.
This information is produced for use by NHS healthcare professionals and RDTC stakeholders.
Formulary assessment – levomepromazine 6mg tablets
Formulary assessment tools are templates to support local decision making. They list NICE guidance, MHRA safety advice, and other relevant high quality advice and guidelines relevant to making decisions for local formularies.
The templates are pre-populated with useful information to reduce duplication of effort, with space for the addition of local information as appropriate. The purpose of the document is to support consistent decision making by formulary groups and APCs.
This information is produced for use by NHS healthcare professionals and RDTC stakeholders.