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ONUS ON IN-HOME CARE PUTS DRUG ERROR AMONG DEMENTIA SUFFERERS IN THE SPOTLIGHT- June 2011
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society's former Director of Policy & Communications, David Pruce, is speaking at this year's Care Show Birmingham in collaboration with Protomed, about the challenges of medication compliance among Britain's 614,000 dementia sufferers.
"As the coalition government explained at last week's GP Commissioning Conference, under the new NHS regime the onus is on caring for patients in their own home wherever possible. This makes it all the more essential that steps are taken to monitor medication regimes stringently and give dementia sufferers and their carers a fighting chance to manage their health effectively.
"Experience shows that medication adherence is a costly problem, both financially and in terms of patient outcomes. Between a third and half of all medicines are not taken as recommended, resulting in between £36m and £196m worth of preventable hospital admissions . Adding dementia into the equation greatly increases the risk of patients not complying with medicine regimes, and also raises the cost to the public purse.
"Patients with dementia are more vulnerable to non-adherence due to memory loss. The fact that many dementia sufferers have multiple conditions, for which they take a range of medicines, exacerbates the situation, making it more difficult for them to follow doctors' orders. If the goal of the 'new NHS' is to promote in-home care as opposed to care in institutions, we must make special provision for dementia suffers who are at considerable risk of deviating from medicine regimes.
"Dementia sufferers and their carers desperately need special support to manage their medication responsibly. As well as hands-on care to monitor and correct non-adherence, whether in a care home or in their own home, we should not underestimate the role of monitored dosage systems as a practical tool to jog patients' memories. 'Intelligent packaging' such as Biodose® helps those with dementia to maintain as much independence as possible without jeopardising their health."
"Speaking at the GP Commissioning Conference, Practice Manager Jose Tarnowski explained that a day's admission to an acute hospital costs the same as a whole year's care by a GP practice. With in-home care a priority for NHS reforms, adherence systems like Biodose will become an increasingly valuable part of a health service focusing on [patient] outcomes rather than output. While there is no 'magic bullet' to overcome the compliance problem, the value of monitored dosage systems (MDS) in dementia care cannot and should not be ignored."
