Understanding and Appraising the New Medicine Service in England

Summary

About 25% medicines prescribed for long term conditions are not taken as directed, and approximately 15% people receiving a new medicine take few, if any, doses. The New Medicine Service (NMS) is a community pharmacy service that started in England in October 2011 which involves the pharmacist providing additional support to patients starting a new medicine for some breathing problems (asthma \& COPD), high blood pressure, adult onset diabetes or medicines which reduce blood clotting. It aims to improve the way patients take their medicines improving outcomes and reducing costs to the National Health Service (NHS).

The investigators will assess the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of the NMS using a research study where some people will receive the NMS, and some won't, so The investigators can look at the effect of the NMS on problems with their medicines, medicines taking and use of the NHS in general. Data will be collected in the East Midlands, South Yorkshire and London areas.

The investigators will recruit 500 patients from a range of different pharmacies and follow them up at six, ten and twenty six weeks after starting their new medicine to assess effects on medicines taking behaviour, patients' reported problems with medicines, referrals to their General Practitioner (GP) and use of NHS resources. The investigators will compare the data gathered from this study with that being collected routinely by all pharmacies in England to provide wider estimates of cost effectiveness.

The investigators will also explore how the NMS service is being implemented by pharmacies. A sample of patients from the main study will be followed in more detail. This will involve recording the consultations with the pharmacist and also interviewing patients about their experience of the service. The investigators will interview the patients GP to investigate their views of the service. The investigators will also try to understand why people decline the invitation for the NMS

Conditions

• Asthma
• Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive
• Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2
• Hypertension
• Blood Coagulation

Interventions

OTHER

New Medicine Service

The New Medicine Service is an intervention where patients prescribed a new medicine receive followup consultations with the pharmacist 7-14 days and 14-21 days after receiving the new prescription item

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Department of Health, United Kingdom

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• University College, London

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Warwick

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Nottingham

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Matthew J Boyd, PhD · University of Nottingham

• Rachel A Elliott, PhD · University of Nottingham

• Anthony J Avery, DM · University of Nottingham

• Nicholas Barber, PhD · University College, London

• Rajnikant Mehta, MSc · University of Nottingham

• Justin Waring, PhD · University of Warwick

• Antony Chuter · Patient Involvement representative

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

14 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2012-08-31

Primary Completion

2014-04-30

Completion

2014-04-30

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations