Case example
Under the auspices of the Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group, nearly 6,500 community pharmacies took part in a two-part audit to understand how pharmacy teams contribute to the support of women and girls prescribed valproate medicines.
The audit, which covered more than 36,000 valproate prescriptions, took place between July and October 2018 and February and March 2019. It found that:
- Pharmacy teams’ awareness about the risks associated with valproate medicines and pregnancy improved over the audit period
- There was an increase in the proportion of valproate prescriptions which indicated that a Pregnancy Prevention Programme (PPP) was in place for the patient
- One in five pharmacies indicated they would appoint a valproate champion as a result of engaging in the audit.
Janice Perkins, chair of the Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group said: ‘Community pharmacy has shown its commitment to improving care for these patients by taking part in this audit and the actions that pharmacy teams committed to undertake following the audit.’
Pause to reflect
Take a minute to think about the last customer complaint you had.
• What questions did you ask and what answers did you get?
• Were you prepared in advance?
• What questions might you have asked had you had time to think about it?
Now think about the last time you (or a team member) went out to counsel a patient on their medication.
• Why did you choose to counsel that patient?
• If it was something to do with the medicine, did you pass on all the relevant information you wanted to?
• Do you think the patient understood the information?
• What questions did you ask, and what answers did you get?