A pilot scheme in which a clinical commissioning group (CCG) is providing grants to GP practices that have employed pharmacists to ensure that patients receive the correct drugs and take them properly appears to be working.

The project in Wyre Forest is focused mainly on helping frail and elderly patients who are most likely to be taking different combinations of medicines or visiting hospitals and GP practices regularly and may not be taking their medication correctly.

A spokesman for Wyre Forest CCG said that the project has been an excellent vehicle for showing how using the right people with the correct skill set can ensure patients are taking the appropriate medicines for their condition.

He added that if practices can help patients understand their medicine better they are more likely to take them both correctly and safely and said that, for some patients, the checks by a pharmacist can avoid side effects and admissions to hospital.

The project was rolled-out following a successful pilot at Bewdley Medical Centre, which demonstrated benefits for patients and provided improved results from the medicines that they took. In fact, the scheme has been so popular that the service has been named runner-up at the NHS Alliance Innovation in Action Awards for CCG Primary Care Champion.

Meanwhile, NHS England has come under fire from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for unequal funding to CCGs, which it says has important implications for the financial sustainability of the health service.

According to PAC members, slow progress had been made towards the Government’s target of ensuring all allocations were within five percentage points of their fair share, rather than based on historical spending levels. In 2014/15, funding allocations for nearly two-fifths of CCGs and over three-quarters of local authorities remained above this level.