NHS Medicines Optimisation Opportunities Dashboard 2023-24

At the end of July 2023 NHSE published guidance titled “National medicines optimisation opportunities 2023/24”. This guidance describes the 16 national medicines optimisation opportunities for the NHS in 2023/24, and signposts to resources to help with their implementation. It recommends Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) choose at least five medicines optimisation opportunities to focus and deliver on alongside their local medicines optimisation priorities. Progress against chosen opportunities will be reviewed using available data.

The RDTC has developed a Northern regions dashboard to highlight the current position of the ICBs across the North of England in relation to these 16 priorities. It will incorporate the metrics that are being developed nationally, but also include metrics which are designed to support medicines optimisation opportunities across the North.

Metrics within this dashboard continue to be developed and updates will be communicated out to stakeholders as they happen. We do not at this time intend to include sub ICB level data.

Stakeholders can find the dashboard at this link.

RDTC at Clinical Pharmacy Congress North

We’re pleased to confirm that RDTC will be at the inaugural CPC North this November!

The event takes place in Manchester on November 3rd and 4th. More details are available on the Pharmacy Congress website, and registration is still open.

You can find us at stand A23, where we’ll be ready to chat about our work and what we can do for you. We’ll have examples of recent work to show how we can support your medicines optimisation and strategic activities, together with what we have planned for the upcoming year.

Monica Mason, Head of Prescribing Support at the RDTC, will be joining the Chairs of GMMMG Professor Charlotte Skitterall and Claire Vaughan at 9:30am on Friday morning in the Clinical Theatre in a session titled “Optimisation of medicines opportunities in Greater Manchester”. Find full details on the CPC North Programme.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Security warnings in Excel files

Following a recent change Microsoft has introduced new security measures to protect users against malicious Excel macros. Previously users may have seen the following message when opening RDTC Excel reports and by selecting Enable Content would allow users to use the spreadsheet with full functionality.

Following the recent change some users may receive the following message when opening our reports:

Many of our reports use macros to update when the viewing options are changed to select the appropriate ICB or sub-ICB. Stakeholders can address the security message by following the instructions by clicking on the Learn More option when the message appears. These options are summarised below, and a downloadable copy is available here.

Unblock all files from a specific network share or website

A preferable option is to set a network location or website as a trusted site in Windows so a macro from the site won’t be checked (this may require assistance from local IT services as Trusted sites may be blocked).

  1. Tap the start button or Windows key and type Internet Options.
  2. Select Internet Options from the search results and the Internet Properties dialog box will appear.
  3. On the Security tab, select Trusted Sites, then select Sites.
  4. Type the URL of the site or server that contains the Microsoft 365 files with the macros you want to run, and then select Add.
  5. Select Close and then OK.

Unblock a single file

  1. After downloading the file, open the Windows File Explorer and go to the folder where you saved the file.
  2. Right-click the file and choose Properties from the context menu.
  3. At the bottom of the General tab, select the Unblock checkbox and select OK.

A downloadable version of these instructions is available here. If you have any questions or have difficulties in opening reports, please email us on nuth.nyrdtc.rxsupp@nhs.net.

Budget impact of methylphenidate modified release tablet choice

The latest in the RDTC’s prescribing bulletin series covers methylphenidate, and highlights the difference in cost between bioequivalent methylphenidate modified release (MR) tablets. It considers the budget impact of MR tablet choice and shows the yearly primary care spend on all methylphenidate XL tablets, and the proportion of this spend on each of the available brands.

This bulletin, and our others, are available from the Prescribing Bulletins page.

Monthly formulary amendments – March 2023

A Monthly Formulary Amendments document covering guidance and alerts published in March 2023 is now available.

The purpose of the document is to support consistent decision making by APCs. This information is produced for use by NHS healthcare professionals and RDTC stakeholders.

This document is available alongside previous editions on the formulary amendments page.

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.