Download Unlicensed Manufactured Medicines (Specials) Prescribing Toolkit

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Unlicensed Manufactured Medicines
(Specials) Prescribing Toolkit
Background
Benefits
Unlicensed manufactured medicines or ‘Specials’ cost the NHS around
£90 million per year and the figure has virtually tripled in recent years.
Since the toolkit was launched, the East of England has bucked the
national trend which has seen the costs of prescribing special
medicines spiral upwards. In many cases patient care has improved as
a number of patients are now receiving safer, more cost effective
licensed preparations.
To minimise costs and encourage best practice, the Hub developed a
prescribers ‘toolkit’ to give doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists and
other clinicians specialist advice on the use of ‘Specials’.
The toolkit has been hailed as an excellent piece of guidance and won
the Health Business Award for Hospital Procurement in December 2011
as well as being shortlisted for two HSJ Efficiency Awards in the summer.
Scope
The toolkit was first published in 2010 and has been widely distributed
all over the UK. Nowhere else has such comprehensive information
been made available in one self-contained source. The toolkit has been
hailed as an excellent piece of guidance and was shortlisted for two
HSJ Efficiency Awards in summer 2011.
An interim second version was published in October 2011, which
focussed on advising prescribers of alternative routes of supply of
Specials; reducing PCT spend on unlicensed medicines; highlighting
the risks associated with prescribing unlicensed medicines and giving
examples of software systems which can be used to aid monitoring of
spend. The final second version will be launched in early 2012
following the introduction of a number of unlicensed medicines to the
Drug Tariff.
Savings Opportunities
Potential pharmacy savings for 2011/12 of £2.6 million have been
calculated for the East of England alone and there are likely to be
savings for Trusts in other regions which have implemented the
advice. In the East of England, prescribing average monthly cost per
patient on ‘Specials’ has reduced from £178.49 per 1000 patients to
£144.18 per 1000 patients.
Timescale
The current version of the toolkit was published in October 2011 and
an updated edition will be published in January 2012.
For further information contact
Jessica Good,
Procurement Project Manager,
[email protected]
Tel: 07766 763872
East of England NHS Collaborative Procurement Hub
Victoria House, Capital Park, Fulbourn, Cambridge, CB21 5XB
Tel: 01223 597747 Email: [email protected]
Working to deliver procurement benefits for NHS Trusts in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk
www.eoecph.nhs.uk