Standard oral nutritional supplement (ONS) prescribing costs in South Eastern Hampshire (SEH) reached £958,224 in 2022/23 with evidence of surplus ONS being returned to local pharmacies from care homes.
A quality improvement project was developed to provide education and training to GP surgery and care home staff, on the appropriate prescribing and monitoring of ONS in care homes. A compulsory 1 hour in person educational outreach training session for all 31 GP practices was delivered by pharmacists in the medicines optimisation team, before then delivering face to face training in the care homes identified as highest users of ONS.
From the training roll out in September 2023, the number of care home patients prescribed ONS dropped from 411 to 200 by March 2024, a reduction of 51%.
The monthly cost of standard ONS prescribing reduced by £14,816.03 (£83,166.40 in September 2023 to £68,350.37 in March 2024) and monthly items reduced from 2120 to 1617 (see Fig.1 and Fig.2 on attached entry form). More importantly, from a quality point of view, we noted improved health outcomes for residents, please see attached entry form for details of these outcomes, including improved wound healing, weight gain and unmasking an undiagnosed medical condition.Thank you.
