This project describes the development of a new model of practice, lead by the medicines management team (MMT) dietitian, to address inappropriate prescribing of oral nutritional supplements (ONS) across two CCGs, covering 470,000 patients in 52 GP practices.
The pharmacy technicians (PTs) in the MMT were trained to assess the clinical necessity of ONS prescriptions in GP practices, following a standard operating procedure (SOP) developed by the dietitian, with on-going clinical support provided by the dietitian.
The PTs in 2 CCGs carried out 684 ONS reviews, stopped or amended the prescriptions in 61% of the reviews and achieved 12 month savings of £234,089 (an average saving of £342 per review). This was a return on investment for the project of 3.6:1. The dietitian was able to carry out 60 training sessions, with 459 attendees on malnutrition identification and management for local GPs, community nurses, care homes and home care providers.
