Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have assessed the difference between a missed delivery and a missed dose of medicine in terms of their policy implications as part of the National Homecare Medicines Committee’s review of national homecare medicines services.

NHS England is committed to improving patient safety and understanding the important role data can play in driving quality improvement.

There are currently national key performance metric definitions available as part of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Homecare Services Professionals Standards which include definitions criteria on the number of failed deliveries, missed doses and patient safety incidents. Patients routinely hold approximately two weeks’ worth of supply of medicines to minimise the risk of a missed or delayed delivery becoming a missed dose.

NHS England has been carrying out an internal review on homecare medicines services. Extensive stakeholder engagement has been undertaken on revising the national key performance indicators (KPIs) and a transition to new KPIs will begin in spring 2024, with full reporting expected by autumn 2024.