National Prescribing Service Program

The NPS is an independent, non-profit organisation for Quality Use of Medicines, funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. NPS provides programs nationally as well as locally, with contracts through each Division of General Practice. The National Prescribing Service (NPS) facilitator is responsible for delivering the NPS program within the Illawarra. This involves practice visits to GPs in their surgeries, participating in and organising continuing education activities for GPs and other health professionals, and consumer education.

Home Medicines Review

A Home Medicines Review (HMR) is a consumer-focused collaborative service used to assist the quality use of medicines. The HMR involves a GP consultation to generate the referral, a pharmacist interview with the consumer (preferably in the consumer’s home), a clinical assessment by the pharmacist and a written report back to the GP.

Medication-related problems cause many hospital admissions and deaths in Australia each year and the HMR program aims to reduce, if not prevent, medication-related problems experienced by people living at home. Patients may be at risk of medication-related problems due to co-morbidities, age, social circumstance, characteristics of their medicines, complexity of their medication treatment regime, confusion or lack of knowledge and skills about how to use medicine effectively. A HMR is a collaborative effort between a General Practitioner, a pharmacist and a patient.

The HMR is undertaken by a pharmacist in the patient’s home under direction of the patient’s GP. The pharmacist collects and reviews information about all prescribed, ‘over the counter’ and complementary medicines the patient takes. This information is reported back to the GP who, in a second consultation, discusses the outcomes of the review with the patient and develops a written medication management plan thereby ensuring medication is optimal and fully understood. The Home Medicines Review Program is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing as part of the Fourth Community Pharmacy Agreement.