2 A limitation of this study is that the nature of pharmacist prescribing was not determined; pharmacists could be prescribing less complex regimes. Further work is needed to determine this. 1. Lewis PJ, Dornan T, Taylor D, et al. Prevalence, incidence and nature of prescribing errors in hospital inpatients: a systematic review. Drug Saf 2009; 32:

379–389. 2. Dornan UK-371804 T, Ashcroft D, Heathfield H, et al. An in depth investigation into causes of prescribing errors by foundation trainees in relation to their medical education- EQUIP Study. General Medical Council. 2009. Available at: http://www.gmcuk.org/about/research/research_commissioned_4.asp [Last accessed 23/02/13]. Adam Pattison Rathbone, Julie Pagan, Debbie Hagan, Julie Harrison The South Tees NHS Foundation Trust, Middlesbrough, UK To discover the benefits of pharmacy-led comprehensive patients’ own drugs services implemented in secondary care. Results from the research included anecdotal evidence and data showing a reduction in drug expenditure in medication likely to be available as the patients own, an increase in the value of medication returned to the pharmacy department for re-use and a reduction in the length of time it takes to prepare

a prescription. Conclusions included there MS 275 are significant financial benefits from the service, medicines waste can be dramatically reduced and further investigation is required to establish impacts on patient safety, patient satisfaction and the role of the pharmacist. The Trust aimed to increase the use of patients’ own medication through implementation of a fully-comprehensive patients’ own drugs (POD) service and to recognise other benefits of implementing such a scheme. In 2009, Chan et al showed a 12.4% drop in prescribing errors if patients’ own medication was available.1 In 2008 Bracey et al showed

that 33% of medication needed at discharge was available as the patients’ own.2 A dedicated pharmacy team delivered a clinical and dispensing service to a 32-bed vascular surgery ward assessing elective and emergency patients – elective patients were asked to bring their medication into hospital at pre-assessment. Data collected from prescription tracker software, dispensing software (AscribeV10), ward-based audits and testimonials. Bed-side lockers these were not used but have since been introduced to the Trust. Ethics committee approval was not needed. An average reduction of £1,520.90 per month in medication likely to be available as the patients’ own was recorded. A 15% increase in the number of items dispensed in less than 30 minutes was recorded. The percent of items dispensed in an hour increased from 5% to 20%. A 23% decrease in dispensing at discharge was recorded. A decrease in waste was measured as an increase in items returned to pharmacy for re-use, which increased from an average value of £90 per month to over £520 per month.