Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support and advise NHS Trusts on ‘ready to use’ medicines which (1) improve patient safety through reduced drug administration errors, (2) save nursing time, and (3) relieve pressure on pharmacy teams.

The noble Lord Carter of Coles published a report last year on the provision of aseptic medicines, including some critical care medicines, in England. Recommendations included setting up a network of hub and spoke facilities to prepare ready to administer medicines, providing guidance on standard injectable medicines, and training for aseptic pharmacy staff. NHS England and NHS Improvement are setting up a National Health Service aseptic services transformation implementation board to co-ordinate the implementation of these recommendations.

The recommended changes will improve patient safety by reducing errors in compounding and administering these medicines. Errors in these medicines are not currently specifically tracked but the report recommends that the NHS begins tracking and reducing them.

The creation of regional hub and spoke services could release the equivalent of over 4,000 whole time equivalent nurses each year. This is based on the time taken for nurses to prepare the 14 most commonly used aseptic medicines. The development of a hub and spoke system will offer opportunities for production at scale, relieving pressure on hospital pharmacies.