Reviewing with the person who actually does it

For four years Constance Oyibo attended medication reviews alone and answered questions about a routine she does not personally carry out.

The two weeks after a discharge are, statistically, when things come apart: doubled doses, discontinued drugs still being taken, side effects nobody warned about.

Eleven medicines, seven of them intended

Roughly one in six calls finds a duplication — the same drug arriving under two names from two prescribers who were each entirely correct.

We were reviewing with the patient and instructing the carer by leaflet. It was exactly backwards.

Samuel Reyes, clinical pharmacy

The annual review

The pharmacist has prescribing rights in this service, which removes a referral step that used to add three weeks to every change.

Joint reviews are now standard where someone else manages the medicines. “It seems obvious,” her son says. “It took four years.”