HSJ Value in Healthcare Awards 2017: Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation

NHS England has standardised chemotherapy drug doses across England through the implementation of a standardised approach to dose banding. The project is improving value at a national scale by reducing drug wastage, enabling the bulk purchasing and or manufacture of chemotherapy drugs and freeing up pharmacist time for more patient-facing activity rather than time-consuming bespoke pharmacy production.

The project has already developed and agreed standardised dosing tables for 19 chemotherapy drugs and agreed implementation of this through a national CQUIN scheme agreed with 88 hospital trusts. The next phase of the project is now expanding this approach to a much broader range of chemotherapy, with the aim of standardisation of >90% of all chemotherapy doses in England.

A CQUIN has been agreed for 2017-19 to support delivery of this.

The judges felt that this was a great project that demonstrated very significant costs reductions whilst dramatically improving patient safety and patient experience.

See HSJ Solutions for the full story of the winner.

Highly Commended was NHS Barnet CCG. Read about its entry on HSJ Solutions.