Our vision of medicines optimisation for Northumberland is to ensure that you get the right choice of medicine at the right time. By focusing on you and your experiences, we can help to:
- Improve outcomes
- Take medicines correctly
- Avoid taking unnecessary medicines
- Reduce waste of medicines
- Improve medicines safety
We work across primary, secondary and community care to ensure a seamless journey for you and your medication. We complete significant work to ensure the correct formulary is followed in secondary and primary care.
Please view our latest annual report in order to see progress within prescribing.
Medicines optimisation group
Ultimately, medicines optimisation can help encourage you to take ownership of your treatment. A medicines optimisation group oversees prescribing within Northumberland and there is representation from a GP director, a GP clinical lead and North of England Commissioning Support (NECS) and Medicines Optimisation pharmacists.
The group has been established to facilitate a cross-organisational approach to medicines management issues and clinical decision making which affect primary care, acute hospitals, mental health, learning disabilities and social care.
The group works closely with the North of Tyne, Gateshead and North Cumbria Area Prescribing Formulary which also has members from the local hospitals and community pharmacy.
North of Tyne, Gateshead and North Cumbria Area Prescribing Formulary
In January 2007, the North of Tyne Area Prescribing Committee was established when the Newcastle Drug and Therapeutics Committee merged with the Northumberland and North Tyneside Drug and Therapeutics Committee.
Following the merger of Newcastle North and East, Newcastle West and Gateshead CCGs, the committee joined with with the Gateshead Medicines Management Committee, and later with North Cumbria CCG , North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS trust and Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to form the North of Tyne, Gateshead and North Cumbria Area Prescribing Formulary
The Formulary serves the following participating organisations:
- Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NUTH)
- Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (NTWT)
- Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHCT)
- NHS Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group
- NHS North Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group
- NHS Newcastle Gateshead CCG
- Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust
- North Cumbria CCG
- North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust
NICE TAG
Medicines with a positive NICE TAG recommendation are funded, when deemed the appropriate clinical choice for patients, no later than 90 days post NICE publication.