New Medicines Service (NMS) - A free service for patients in England who have been prescribed a new medicine for a number of long-term conditions. The conditions are: asthma; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); type 2 diabetes; high blood pressure and people who have been given a new blood-thinning medicine. Patients have an initial consultation and two follow up appointments with a pharmacist to talk about their new medicine and ensure that there are no problems with taking them.
Non-adherence – the act of not fulfilling prescriptions by patients. There are two types: intentional (the patient decides not to follow the treatment recommendations) and unintentional (the patient wants to follow the treatment recommendations but has practical problems).
NSAID - Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
PAC - Priorities Advisory Committee. It is an East of England-wide organisation to promote collaboration and consistency on priority-setting. It is hosted by PrescQIPP and specially funded by East of England CCGs.
PbR – Payment by results. PbR is the payment system in England under which commissioners pay healthcare providers for each patient seen or treated, taking into account the complexity of the patient’s healthcare needs.
Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) - represent the views of patients as participants in decision making within the NHS.
PINCER – Tool for pharmacist led intervention - identifies patients on drugs with side effects and safety issues
Polypharmacy - The concurrent use of multiple medications by one individual. Polypharmacy may be appropriate or problematic.
QIPP - Quality, Innovation, Productivity, Prevention. A large scale programme implemented to transform the NHS through quality care improvement and 20 billion pounds’ worth of savings by 2015. In short, it aims to deliver a better service under a tighter budget.