Pharmacy Professionals Group

Long-term conditions are diseases that cannot be cured, just controlled with medications. Over our lifetime we accumulate diagnoses, such that many people experience old age as a state of multimorbidity.

Our new research published in Age and Ageing has established that most people living with dementia and mild cognitive impairment and their caregivers are willing to have one of their medications deprescribed (78.5%).

Our research, published in Age and Ageing, reports which outcomes are most important to measure in hospital deprescribing trials with older people who are under the care of a geriatrician. Older people and their informal carers, health professionals and deprescribing researchers told us that six outcomes were most important, feasible and acceptable to collect and measure in hospital deprescribing research trials.

Community pharmacy is one of the most accessible parts of the health service, providing access to a qualified healthcare professional without an appointment. Pharmacies are generally open for long hours so also provide access at times that should be convenient.

Older people in general are more susceptible to medicine-related harm and for those with sensory impairment, the risk of iatrogenic disease is even greater.

I am part of a Surgery Team that looks after the residents. The other team members are the GP Lead and the Frailty Nurse. Together we provide a Multidisciplinary team (MDT) approach to the patient’s Care Plans.

Care Home Pharmacists carry out important work and aim to move the dial towards the delivery of personalised, “care-home centred” care, which works better for residents and the people who support them. 

In this evolving landscape of healthcare, the role of an Integrated Care Pharmacist has become increasingly important.

Working in hospital provides the unique opportunity to work within a multidisciplinary team and fully embrace the complexity of older people medicine.