NHS Sunderland Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and University of Sunderland are working on the new initiative to develop more open conversations between patients and healthcare practitioners about whether some of their long-term medicines are still needed.

How this will work

A selection of patients from across Sunderland will be invited to take part in a medication review with a pharmacist working in their GP practice. Letters will be sent to the selected patients along with a postcard which asks them questions to think about before their medication review to help them discuss their medicines with the pharmacist.

As well as the ‘Are your medicines working for you?’ initiative, Sunderland CGG are also planning to include recommendations on when medicines might need to be reviewed and stopped as part of new clinical guidelines, working in partnership with clinicians in secondary care.

As well as the ‘Are your medicines working for you?’ initiative, Sunderland CGG are also planning to include recommendations on when medicines might need to be reviewed and stopped as part of new clinical guidelines, working in partnership with clinicians in secondary care.

The evaluation is expected in Summer 2021 and the findings will be shared on GP TeamNet.

You can read the lay report here.

The ‘Are your medicines working for you?’ initiative was developed from a project funded by the AHSN North East and North Cumbria which worked with healthcare professionals across primary and secondary care to explore barriers to deprescribing in general practice.

For further information about this work, contact gemmadonovan@nhs.net