The seven existing CCGs in Sussex were due to merge into three, thus forming the Sussex NHS Commissioners, on 1 April 2020. Just as final preparations were being put into place for this major change, the COVID-19 outbreak arrived and inadvertently gave us the perfect scenario to showcase how medicines management (MM) could work collaboratively across the county of Sussex, our new ICS, for the first time. The three new Sussex CCGs used the eRD (electronic repeat dispensing) project to demonstrate this new collaborative way of working.
The overall aim of the project was to support GP practices in following NHS England's recommendation to consider putting all suitable patients on to eRD as soon as possible; the first step was to form a project task and finish group incorporating MM colleagues from across the County. Working together, from home via MS Teams, across three newly merged CCGs in lock down definitely had its challenges but our enthusiastic and dedicated pan-Sussex project group worked closely together and made it happen.
This project formed part of the local effort to improve medicines optimisation, as well as manage increased pressure on the NHS, increase prescribing efficiencies, reduce footfall in primary care and prepare for the possibility of a second wave of the virus. In itself, eRD offers many benefits for patients, prescribers and the NHS by reducing waste, decreasing workload and improving accessibility to medicines.
Feedback from patients, GP practices and MM colleagues was positive, and over 12,000 patients, equating to over 23,000 items were converted to eRD. This is equivalent to over 186,000 items of activity being removed from primary care over the next year.
