1. Safety in Medicines: Raising the profile with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Liz Rawlins Communications Officer 9 May 2011

2. Overview About Us - Who we are and what we do Background - Medicines safety: the big issues RPS Ambitions - Our roadmap for action Partnership with 1000 Lives Plus - What we have been doing Medicines Safety Symposium - Overview and recommendations Next steps – Strategic issues for RPS and 1000 Lives Plus Plans for Communications – strength in partnership Section Title

3. About Us The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) is the professional body for every pharmacist in Great Britain We are the only body that represents all sectors of pharmacy in Great Britain We lead and support the development of the pharmacy profession within the context of the public benefit We promote the profession’s policies and views to a range of external stakeholders in a number of different forums Our key functions are in: Leadership, representation and advocacy Professional development, education and support Professional networking and publications The Welsh Pharmacy Board and its staff based in Cardiff are in place to meet the specific needs of our members and the wider pharmacy profession in Wales About Us

4. Background: Why medicines safety? Background Medicines are a crucial part of modern health care - they have the potential to cause harm as well as good Risks are high 2.5million prescriptions dispensed each day across the NHS 40million prescriptions issued each year in NHS Wales 60,000 medication safety incidents reported each year in UK 4-5% of hospital admissions occur from adverse effects of drug therapy 10% of hospital in-patients in the UK harmed by adverse events Costs are high £750million - estimated cost each year from adverse incidents in NHS England alone Most medication incidents are avoidable - Better systems and safeguards can prevent harm, save lives and reduce costs

5. Royal Pharmaceutical Society Ambitions for Patient Safety Ambitions The Contribution of Pharmacy to Making Britain a Safer Place to Take Medicines (2009) recommended: Medicines safety should be a key priority for RPS We should develop our role in medicines safety to influence the national policy agendas and patient safety campaigns in the three GB countries We should actively engage with organisations giving direct advice to the public about their medicines We should work with other stakeholders to establish a repository or portal for knowledge sharing about medicines safety and effective interventions We should use our influence to ensure that medicines safety remains at the forefront of professional education and development in pharmacy

6. Medicines Management Key content area for 1000 Lives Plus Key priority for RPS Strategic area for collaboration Medicines Safety Symposium Explore in detail where pharmacists can make a significant difference in improving patient safety Identify the barriers in the NHS to safe medicines management Hear examples of good practice from across Wales Provide opportunities for learning, networking and forging new working relationships Lay the foundations for future work Communications Regular meetings and contact with 1000 Lives Plus Linking RPS and 1000 Lives Plus through publications on medicines safety Partnership Partnership with 1000 Lives Plus

7. Symposium Medicines Safety Symposium Held in October 2010 in association with 1000 Lives Plus and Public Health Wales Brought together pharmacists from all sectors Key speakers from 1000 Lives Plus, NHS Executives, NHS Senior Managers, Senior Pharmacists Provided an opportunity to address key barriers and solutions to improving medication safety Action is needed at national and local levels, in policy and practice to: Increase health literacy among patients/general public Improve medicines adherence and health outcomes Increase safety in patient transfers between care settings

8. Next steps Promote the recommendations of the medicines safety symposium to policy makers, NHS Boards and executive teams, politicians and other key stakeholders Work in partnership (with 1000 Lives Plus) with the Welsh Assembly Government, Health Boards and other appropriate bodies to advise on medicines safety and to push forward the recommendations made in the report Contribute to discussions and decisions made by the NHS Wales transformational programme on medicines management Facilitate arrangements to ensure the pharmacy profession is engaged in local and national work to develop models for improvement in medicines management across Wales Take this work forward on a GB basis. Next Steps

9. Communicating the findings Members : Launched report on our website (full access RPS members only) but executive summary page open to all which is easily linked to at www.rpharms.com/wales - for the full report contact Welsh office.www.rpharms.com/wales Press release given to trade press (e.g. Pharmaceutical Journal) to highlight the publishing of the report. Wider NHS Our aim is to communicate to all health professionals in the NHS through the Local Health Boards – our members are also your colleagues/staff so we are communicating to the same audience. This is a huge task and we know we can’t do it on our own – this is major piece of work which will be best tackled in partnership, Section Title

10. Patients and the public: We want to communicate the findings of the report the public, looking at medicines adherence and health literacy by discussing the current situation in Wales and where we think improvements can be made within the NHS using pharmaceutical care. RPS & 1000 Lives Plus have discussed possibility of conducting research into public understanding of pharmaceutical terms which will feed into the health literacy aspect of medicines safety in Wales. GB wide project with RPS Wales & 1000 Lives leading the way. What we need: Looking for patient stories/case studies which are relevant to the medicines safety project – people not taking medicines correctly/wrong medicines - going to see their pharmacist/health professional for a medicines check. Transfer of care – good practice examples/interventions. Section Title Communicating the findings

11. Contact Liz Rawlins elizabeth.rawlins@rpharms.com Welsh Office: T: 029 2073 0310 E: wales@rpharms.comwales@rpharms.com Andrew Cooper, 1000 Lives Plus Medicines Safety Pages available at www.rpharms.com/waleswww.rpharms.com/wales Section Title