Polypharmacy – Getting the balance right
Supporting healthcare professionals to identify patients at potential risk and facilitate better conversations about medicines
Locally, we are implementing a Health Innovation Network-wide polypharmacy programme. Polypharmacy is when people are prescribed many different medicines for one or more health conditions; this can lead to unintended consequences, such as hospital admission, adverse reactions to drugs, and non-adherence issues. It is much more common in older people with about 40% of over 65s living in their own homes currently prescribed more than 10 different medicines.
The National Overprescribing Review report found that overprescribing is a serious problem in health systems that has grown dramatically over the last 25 years. The report suggested 20 cross-system recommendations. This programme directly supports the delivery of a number of these recommendations. It has focused on three pillars of work:
- Population Health Management - Using data to understand health risks and identify patients who would benefit most from a review of their medications (referred to as a Structured Medication Review).
- Education and Training - Running meetings and events for people working in GP and primary care services, for example to build their confidence around when to stop prescribing medicines to a patient.
- Information and support for members of the public - The use of the ‘Me + my medicines’ public-facing campaign to encourage conversations between healthcare staff and patients about their medicines.
