August 2022 Newsletter

Prescribing support newsletters aim to inform readers of work done by the unit and work in progress, to help tailor local work plans and highlight any ‘topical’ issues in prescribing or medicines management.

If you have any suggestions for future topics for the newsletter, then please contact nuth.nyrdtc.rxsupp@nhs.net

This month’s edition introduces Strategic Insights, our new publication type, and has the first in a series of “Meet the Team”, where you can get to know the people behind the work we do. We also cover the new national shared care protocols published by NHSE, changes to the childhood vaccination schedule, and outline some resources that are available to support DOAC switches. There is also information on the changes to the Medicines Information Service, and some key medicines availability issues.

New publication type: Strategic Insights

The RDTC has published a new Strategic Insights report on Electronic Repeat Dispensing: understanding the prescribing population & initial barriers to uptake.

Strategic Insight reports are designed to support strategic objectives and planning by Integrated Care System (ICS) leaders. Through the analysis of data and communication with key stakeholders across the ICS, interventions to be undertaken by the ICS are proposed to Integrated Care Boards or associated committees.

This report highlights the benefits of electronic repeat dispensing (eRD) and examines its use at ICS level in the North of England, in order to support systems in identifying where prescribing processes may be further streamlined.

Additional funding from NHS England regional teams has enabled this publication to be made available to non-stakeholders across the North East and Yorkshire, and North West. Further titles in this series will follow, see our work plan for more details.

If you have any queries or comments about this publication, please do not hesitate to contact us at nuth.nyrdtc.rxsupp@nhs.net.

Prescribing support workplan – June

The Prescribing Support workplan has been updated and is now available on the workplan page. The workplan is updated monthly and includes topics in active development.

Prescribing support workplan

This workplan is updated monthly and includes topics in active development.

  • To suggest a topic or enquire about anything on this workplan, please email us at nuth.nyrdtc.rxsupp@nhs.net.
  • To view a list of recently published items, visit the recent publications page of our website.
  • See the last page of the workplan for descriptions of each type of publication, and anticipated publication frequency.

New publication type: formulary assessment tools

Our new series of monthly formulary amendments have been well received, so we’ve added another set of support documents: formulary assessment tools. These are templates to support local decision making, bringing together 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.

The first publications in the series cover levomepromazine 6mg tablets and indapamide 1.5mg modified release tablets. This information is produced for use by NHS healthcare professionals and RDTC stakeholders.

Find all of our formulary tools at their own formulary support tools landing page.

New bulletins: antimicrobials, carbon impact, and overprescribing

We’re continuing to develop new outputs to best support our stakeholders across the country, and today we’ve published three new bulletins:

You can find all three on the bulletins page. We’d welcome any feedback on these new publications, including input on how often they should be refreshed. Get in touch at nuth.nyrdtc.rxsupp@nhs.net.

July newsletter

Prescribing support newsletters aim to inform readers of work done by the unit and work in progress, to help tailor local work plans and highlight any ‘topical’ issues in prescribing or medicines management.

If you have any suggestions for future topics for the newsletter, then please contact nuth.nyrdtc.rxsupp@nhs.net

This month’s newsletter covers our new website, the latest healthcare professional letter on sodium valproate, and an update on the use of chloramphenicol eyedrops in children. It also continues a series of spotlight articles on our prescribing data reports; this month take a look at our Financial Headlines.

Download the July newsletter here.

New website launch

The RDTC are proud to share our newly updated website. The new site is streamlined to make it easier for you to see everything we produce, and find exactly what you need with a few clicks.

You can visit the site home page to find out more about all of the services hosted by the centre, or head to the Prescribing Support landing page to take a look at the new layout for our content. The new layout allows you to:

  • Click on a topic to see everything we produce in that area, from prescribing data analysis to evidence evaluation.
  • Click on “search publications” to do some finer searching, filtering outputs by topic and type to find exactly what you need.

We hope you’ll find the new layout intuitive and easy to use, but don’t hesitate to send us an email or a Twitter message if you have any problems.

You’ll need to re-register using the form at this link to download files, but the form is quick and easy.

We welcome all feedback; please get in touch at nuth.nyrdtc.rxsupp@nhs.net

Great North Pharmacy Collaborative Conference

The Great North Pharmacy Collaborative Conference was held on Friday 9th July, and the team at the RDTC were pleased to attend. The event was held virtually this year, and the theme was Technology: the great pharmacy enabler. The RDTC team submitted four posters, including three from the prescribing support team.

Our posters were:

You can view these alongside the rest of the great posters on the AHSN website. Congratulations to the three winning posters, and we look forward to next year’s event!

May newsletter

Prescribing support newsletters aim to inform readers of work done by the unit and work in progress, to help tailor local work plans and highlight any ‘topical’ issues in prescribing or medicines management.

If you have any suggestions for future topics for the newsletter, then please contact nuth.nyrdtc.rxsupp@nhs.net

Download the May newsletter here.