The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has published a report advocating having a pharmacist in every care home in the UK, which could save £60m annually in medicine reviews and £75m through the prevention of avoidable hospital admissions.

According to The Right Medicine – Improving Care in Care Homes, pharmacist-led medicine reviews in care homes would not only improve safety for the residents but also save the NHS money by preventing avoidable hospital admissions.

Commenting on the report’s publication, a spokeswoman for the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) said that the body welcomes the opportunity to further develop the constructive and valuable relationship that GPs have with their pharmacist colleagues.

She added that GPs’ patients who live in care homes are invariably living with multiple, long-term conditions, and as a result are often taking multiple medications, which can lead to health problems in itself.

Managing polypharmacy effectively is key to ensuring that patients in care homes are kept safe and only taking medicines that they need to, as this also reduces medicine waste, and at a time when the health service is running with scant resources, this is particularly important.

Moreover, as the RCGP pointed out, with GP practices under increasing resource and workforce pressures, the suggestion that pharmacists take on some of the medicine management responsibilities in care homes is definitely worth exploring. This also ties in with the fact that, last month, GPs voted to have ‘separate contractual arrangements’ for residents in care homes and nursing homes arguing lack of time and workforce.

There are currently 405,000 care home residents in the UK aged over 65 with approximately 97 per cent being prescribed at least one medication. Therefore, with an estimated saving of £190 per resident through preventing avoidable hospital admissions caused by potential drug-related adverse events, more than £75m a year could be saved.