Dear Member,

We know that fitting a high-quality New Medicine Service (NMS) into a busy dispensing workflow is a challenge. However, the NMS remains one of our most valuable tools for both patient safety and pharmacy sustainability.

In the next instalment of our NMS Adherence Series to support your clinical delivery and streamline your consultations, this week we are covering support sheets on Epilepsy and Heart Failure.

WEEK 3 Focus is on:

We are kicking off with two high-impact conditions:

• Epilepsy
• Heart Failure

Please review the attached guides. Let’s use these to bridge the gap for our patients and drive our service numbers up.

Mandatory Clinical Disclaimer: Pharmacists must always verify information against current sources. The materials provided in this series are visual training aids designed for educational purposes only. They should not be relied upon to make clinical decisions. Professional clinical judgement must be exercised at all times, and the latest SPC, BNF, and NICE guidelines must be consulted. The authors accept no liability for clinical errors.

New Medicine Service (NMS): Intervention and Follow-up timings during the Christmas period

As we move into the busy Christmas and bank holiday period, we wanted to remind all pharmacies of the flexibility within the New Medicine Service (NMS) specification regarding the timing of Intervention and Follow-up consultations.

Under the service specification, the typical timings are:
    •    Intervention: typically 7–14 days after patient recruitment
    •    Follow-up: typically 14–21 days after the Intervention

These timings are intended to ensure patients receive appropriate support in the early weeks after starting a new medicine. However, the specification  explicitly allow pharmacists to use their professional judgement to deliver the Intervention and/or Follow-up outside these typical timeframes where it is clinically appropriate.

Examples where this may apply include:
    •    The patient being away or unavailable
    •    The patient being admitted to hospital
    •    Disruption caused by bank holidays (e.g. Christmas or Easter)

During such periods, pharmacists may still undertake the Intervention and Follow-up at an alternative time that best meets the patient’s needs, provided the underlying aim of supporting the patient early in their treatment is maintained.

It is important that all pharmacists and relevant team members are aware of this flexibility to ensure patients continue to benefit from the NMS during the festive period, even where standard call timings cannot be met.

Where the Intervention or Follow-up is completed outside the typical timeframes, pharmacists must clearly record the reason in the clinical notes (for example: Christmas period, bank holiday closures, patient unavailable or away).

Regards,

PharmaPlus