Emergency Supply Audit

Some key information about the audit is highlighted below. For further information go to http://psnc.org.uk/contract-it/essential-service-clinical-governance/clinical-audit/ or read A Guide to Clinical Audit.

At this stage contractors will want to note that the two data collection periods have been agreed as Monday 9 March to Sunday 22 March 2015 (inclusive) and Monday 23 March to Sunday 5 April 2015 (inclusive). Both of the audit periods will include two full weekends so that emergency supplies made when GP practices are closed can be assessed. The second period covers the Easter holiday and was selected to provide an opportunity to audit provision of emergency supplies during a peak period for healthcare provision. PSNC has stressed that this is a busy time for pharmacies and to help mitigate any potential risks to patient safety resulting from increased operational pressure they have secured agreement that the audit data collection should be as straightforward as possible to complete. To support this, contractors undertaking the audit in the second two week period will be permitted a lag of up to two weeks post 5 April 2015 in which to complete the data collection retrospectively. PSNC believes that this will demonstrate the positive impact that pharmacy emergency supplies can have in reducing the demand for urgent and emergency services such as, out of hours GP care, NHS 111 and Emergency Departments. The audit may also be useful in helping pharmacies to identify patients suitable for the repeat dispensing service. The aims of the audit are to understand:
• The reasons behind patients requesting/requiring an emergency supply
• The reasons why an emergency supply was not provided (where that was the case)
• The potential benefit to the patient if an emergency supply is provided
• The impact and/or patient’s subsequent course of action had an emergency supply not been provided