Pharmacist-delivered New Medicine Service ‘delivering NHS savings’

A new report has highlighted the significant NHS savings delivered through the New Medicine Service (NMS) scheme, which was launched by the Department of Health in 2011.

The University of Manchester analysis highlighted a number of benefits associated with NMS, a free scheme where community pharmacists help patients take new medicines.

Self-reported medicine adherence rates were assessed at ten weeks in a sample of 503 parents, finding that NMS has helped to improve medicines adherence by ten percent, while saving the NHS 75.4 million pounds.

From the launch of NMS through to the end of August 2016, 3.59 million consultations have been claimed. Out of 11,495 community pharmacies in England, 91.2 percent had delivered NMS to at least one patient.

As such, it is estimated that the scheme will save NHS England 517.6 million pounds in the long term.

Lead researcher Professor Rachel Elliott from the University of Manchester said: "We also think our figures are probably on the conservative side given probable patient recruitment bias, use of self-report of adherence, and the assumption that all the patients in the intervention arm actually received the NMS."

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