The aim of the project was to to identify and prioritise specific patients using the new polypharmacy comparators available from NHS BSA EPACT2 ( developed by Wessex AHSN) who from the evidence are deemed to be at risk of problematic polypharmacy and who would thus benefit from a structured face to face medication review.
The comparators were used to identify and target the numbers of patients per practice who are prescribed more than 15 unique medicines and aged 75 years and over AND the number of patients with an anticholinergic burden score of 6 or more aged 75 and over.
Education, training and resources on polypharmacy were provided to practices by the CCG Medicines Management team. Practices then called in patients for face to face structured medication reviews where possible. Some patients in care homes were reviewed by the CCG Care Homes pharmacist.
As a result of the project, data from NHS BSA demonstrated a significant reduction in the percentage of patients in the above cohorts as well as in other comparators.
