Pharmacy Services

Pharmacy provides services to patients treated in Antrim Area Hospital, Causeway Hospital, Mid-Ulster Hospital, Whiteabbey Hospital, Holywell Hospital, Robinson Hospital, Moyle Hospital, Dalriada Hospital, and to those cared for by community services.

The service supports the safe, effective and economical use of medicines for all our patients. We do this through a number of teams of highly trained pharmacists, technicians, assistants and support staff who specialise in different aspects of medicines and pharmaceutical products use.

Clinical Pharmacy Service

The Clinical Pharmacy Service has a team of pharmacists and technicians who provide a range of services to ensure optimisation of medicines use.

Many wards within the Northern Trust operate one stop dispensing which involves :

• taking an accurate medication history on admission and reconciling with the kardex
• ensuring all medicines are available in the locked drawer by the patient bedside
• optimising re-use patients own medicines
• monitoring of medicines during hospital stay
• discharge planning and completion of discharge prescriptions
• provision of specialist counselling on drug therapy

Many of our pharmacists are independent prescribers. This means they are able to prescribe the correct medication, enabling patients to receive their medication in a timely manner.

The Team also provides:

• adverse drug events reporting
• patient education
• doctor/nurse education
• participation in ward rounds and ward team meetings
• improved compliance with prescribing policies and hospital formulary

Clinical pharmacists also provide services to specialised clinics, for example, rheumatology, warfarin, pre-admission for surgery, renal and renal transplant, and have input at cardiac and pulmonary rehab classes.

Our Antimicrobial Pharmacy Team has pharmacists and technicians who provide expert advice on antibiotics, and monitor use to ensure they are prescribed appropriately.

Community Pharmacy Service

The Community Medicines Optimisation Service is a team of clinical pharmacists and technicians who work in community based facilities.

The team is responsible for medicines optimisation within the Trust’s community settings, which include adult and specialist community services and children’s community services.

The team conducts audits to support the safe handling of medicines, medicines reconciliation, and medicines management of patients transferring between hospitals.

There is significant involvement with the provision of services and supplies to community teams, such as the School Immunisation Team, family planning, podiatry and GP treatment rooms. The team also work closely with other services such as the Domiciliary Care Service.

As part of a regional initiative there is a team of specialist pharmacists whose roles are:

• to provide medication reviews to residents of nursing homes
• to support people living at home with taking their medication correctly
• to provide pharmaceutical care to patients in intermediate care facilities

Dispensary services

The Dispensary Services Team dispense medication to both inpatients and outpatients. The team includes technicians, assistant technical officers and pharmacists, who use modern robotic dispensing technology to dispense the majority of the medicines. An additional section within the Dispensary is responsible for the supply of specialist hospital-only medications to patients within the Trust.

The Team provide a distribution service for medicines and pharmaceutical products, including a delivery and collection service to all wards and departments, which plays an important part in patient care. The distribution includes a regular stock replenishment service to re-supply wards and departments on the Trust site, as well as some external medical centres.

Specialist Services

Specialist Services provide a range of aseptic products for patients, including the provision of a centralised intravenous antibiotic reconstitution service, parenteral nutrition for both adults and children, as well as pain relief solutions.  In addition, Laurel House at Antrim Area Hospital, as part of the Cancer Unit, provides services to Oncology, Haematology and Palliative Care. This involves the preparation of specialised injectable medicines. A clinical pharmacy service is also provided to patients attending the Unit.

Procurement

The Procurement Team procure, receive, store, manage and distribute a wide range of pharmaceutical products and medical gases in the hospital and community sectors, including directly to patients. Many of the products are on national or regional contracts where prices have already been negotiated.

Medicines Information for patients

A comprehensive medicines information service is provided by staff, regarding pharmaceutical products and their safe and effective use.

Medicines governance

Pharmacy services are also responsible for ensuring that all aspects of medicines management processes across the Trust are safe and of high quality. This work includes, for example, ensuring that all safety alerts with regard to medicines and their use are fully implemented. Medication incidents reported within the Trust are reviewed and analysed by the department, with incident investigations undertaken where relevant, and learning shared across the Trust.