Nuala Hampson (she/her)'s activity
In group: Sustainable Healthcare
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Nuala Hampson (she/her) posted an update in the group Sustainable Healthcare 2 months ago
Hi there,
I’m new to the Q community. I’m a pharmacist, spent most of my career working in primary care / general practice, now work full time in education, mainly for the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare. We have proposed an idea for a project focusing on medicines waste in care homes. This is an age old problem but we would like to look at both the carbon footprint/environmental impact of care home medicines waste and the social aspects around the problem. We’d like to talk to care home, general practice and community pharmacy staff to explore their experience, values and beliefs around medicines to try and better understand why wastage of unused medicine continues to be a persistent problem.
I’d be really interested in your views, comments, suggestions on our project idea to help us refine our proposal.
Thank you so much!
Nuala
Hi Nuala,
Would you consider including Oral Nutritional Supplements in the scope? Many nursing homes have large stocks and the questions you propose to explore would be equally valid. Happy to discuss further if helpful rebecca.fisher@nhs.lpp.uk
Hi Rebecca,
yes we would definitely include oral nutritional supplements within the scope. We’re focusing on avoidable waste – common items include ONS, topical products, continence items, dressings etc. I am in contact with one care home team who are planning a QI project specifically on reducing waste of ONS. Do you have experience in this area? I’d be interested in any data and any learning/experience.
Many thanks
Nuala
I think checking out the repeat ordering systems and processes is key to this . I suspect a lot of variation but may be some examples of good practice to share ?
Hi Lawrence,
absolutely. Talking to some care home pharmacists recently there are a range of different processes and there is now a remote (online) pharmacy model to add to the complexity! I suspect the logistics of the repeat prescribing process will play a big role.
Nuala