21. Show me your medicines with Dr Deb Gompertz

Welcome to the latest episode of Talking Meds and the PrescQIPP podcast, engaging conversations about medicines-related dilemmas. Today, your host Jonathan Underhill, Medicines Clinical Adviser at PrescQIPP, talks to Dr Deb Gompertz about a truly inspirational piece of work she led called 'Show me your medicines please'.

Deb was a GP partner for 16 years then complex care GP for last 8 working within the South part of Somerset Foundation Trust. She is Deputy Honorary Secretary for the British Geriatrics Society. Like me, she has a strong interest in person centred care and shared decision making

Seeing a patient’s medication is not part of the normal medication review. Deb and her team showed that, by asking people to 'show me your medicines please' they identified a cohort of the population at increased risk of adverse events from erratic medicines use, poor long-term condition management and, potentially, an undiagnosed condition such as dementia. 

In the first three-month pilot, the team identified 40 patients (1 in 4 of those assessed) who were not taking their medicines as per their prescribed regimen. They identified 1,049 individual months of unused prescription items and the total amount of wasted medication was valued at £10,866.

You can see how impactful this simple intervention can be. Frankly, we think asking the question, 'show me your medicines please'  should be a routine part of medication review.

"Show Me Your Medicines Please" resources (available for free from the PrescQIPP website):

• Show Me Your Medicines Please

PrescQIPP resources mentioned in this episode:

• Bulletin 366. Medicines adherence and waste
• Bulletin 319: Good prescribing
• Bulletin 268: IMPACT
• Bulletin 255. Prevent Medicine Waste Campaigns - inhalers, insulin, ONS (sip feeds) and general campaign
• Adherence and waste

Other resources mentioned in this episode:

• Show me your medicines please - British Geriatric Society
• Pharmaceutical Journal article on the project
• Radical candour resources

A new episode of Talking Meds will be available every other Friday.
If you have feedback or suggestions for future topics and guests please submit them to talkingmeds@prescqipp.info

PrescQIPP is funded by the NHS for the NHS, and our aim is to improve medicines-related care for patients. We do this by producing high quality evidence-based resources and training, and by facilitating networks between NHS organisations and professionals.

The majority of pharmacists and other healthcare professionals across the UK can access our resources by registering and logging on to our website. If you have any difficulty accessing the website you can email help@prescqipp.info and we’ll aim to sort things out for you.

Find out more about PrescQIPP here