Reducing Anticholinergic Burden through Project Delivery and Education across West Yorkshire (2025)

West Yorkshire Integrated Care System Anticholinergic Burden Task and Finish Group

Project summary

Overprescribing and polypharmacy was agreed as a priority area by high level stakeholders across West Yorkshire (WY). The WY Anticholinergic Burden (ACB) Task and Finish (T&F) group was established in December 2022 to tackle the high ACB scores in the area. The T&F group has over 30 members from across Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Kirklees and Calderdale and reports into the bi-monthly overarching overprescribing group.

The harms of anticholinergic medicines are well documented, and the group orchestrated a multifaceted approach to tackling high anticholinergic burden (ACB) scores across WY which is innovative and new.

Through analysis of ePACT2 prescribing data, we recognised that WY was above the national average for the parameters for ACB.

The T&F group instigated numerous medicines safety initiatives coupled with education for patients and clinicians to reduce ACB across WY which has resulted in a downward trend in ACB score > 6 in the over 65s.

The numerous targeted quality improvement projects have involved pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in different sectors working collaboratively throughout the region.

The T&F group has delivered key objectives to reduce ACB by engaging stakeholders and working together to improve patient safety through deprescribing or switching to therapies with fewer anticholinergic effects.

The individual projects are reproducible, and the resources and materials developed by the WY ACB T&F group have been shared with this submission.

Having seen positive impact on ACB scores across WY, there was a call from clinicians for regional cross sector prescribing guidance: Anticholinergic guidance for clinicians.

Members of the WYACB T&F group developed prescribing guidance and information for the public, available as a webpage on the WY Health and Care Partnership (HCP) website and the British Geriatric Society (BGS) pharmacy resources page: Anticholinergic medicines page.

The webpage has information which can be translated into over 100 different languages. There are also fully accessible patient information leaflets that can be downloaded as a PDF or printed in an easy read format.

Members of the group recorded a podcast discussing the risks, side effects and myths surrounding anticholinergic medicines. It is also available on the WY HCP webpage or via this link: https://bit.ly/3GT1qKZ

The ACB T&F group worked closely with Yorkshire and Humber Health Innovation Network (Y&H HIN) to record ACB Masterclasses in 2023 and 2025. We had a multidisciplinary audience from different sectors. The YouTube recordings have had 204 and 69 views respectively; 96 people attended the live Masterclass in March 2025 and feedback was very positive.