Talking Meds - A PrescQIPP podcast

Welcome to the 2nd episode of Talking Meds and the PrescQIPP podcast, engaging conversations about medicines-related dilemmas. Today your host Jonathan Underhill, Medicines Clinical Adviser at PrescQIPP, introduces a new series within the Talking Meds podcast called ‘Sensible prescribing in Older people with Jonathan and Lucy’. Jonathan and Dr Lucy Pollock outline their plan to share some real patient stories that may help us think about how to ensure we consider what really matters to patients when we are reviewing their medicines.  Lucy grew up in Northern Ireland, read medicine at Cambridge University and St Bartholomew’s Hospital and is eternally grateful for the advice of an early boss who hoped she would not be offended if he suggested she should become a geriatrician. She trained in general and geriatric medicine in London before taking up a consultant post in Somerset in 2001. She lives with her husband and dog Rose near Langport. They have three grown-up children.  Lucy writes about her patients, their families and the complicated, funny, sad problems that arise as we age. The Book About Getting Older (2021) and The Golden Rule (2024) are both published by Penguin Random House.  @lucypollock | LinktreeIn this episode, Jonathan and Lucy talk how about we need to be really careful when starting some medicines, making sure we are considering some of the potential, perhaps unintended consequences. Lucy tells about her experiences where sometimes the very best of intentions to try and help treat symptoms may lead to ‘prescribing cascades’ and how tricky that can be for our patients.Useful sources referred to in this episode include:Introduction to ‘prescribing cascades’ from Canadian Medication Appropriateness and Desprescribing Network: https://www.deprescribingnetwork.ca/blog/prescribing-cascadeBMJ Open Adverse drug reactions, multimorbidity and polypharmacy: a prospective analysis of 1 month of medical admissionshttps://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/12/7/e055551.full.pdfUseful PrescQIPP resources (need to be registered and logged into the website to access):Polypharmacy and deprescribing webkit https://www.prescqipp.info/our-resources/webkits/polypharmacy-and-deprescribing/IMPACT Bulletin 268https://www.prescqipp.info/our-resources/bulletins/bulletin-268-impact/Clinical Masterclasses on Multimorbidity, Frailty and Polypharmacy in Older People https://www.prescqipp.info/our-resources/clinical-webinars/clinical-masterclass-dec-2021/ 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.infoPrescQIPP 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

Welcome to the first 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 Magnus Hird about his role, how he prioritises people for medication review as well as two current safety issues that have recently been in the news.Magnus is a pioneer of clinical pharmacists working in General Practice and one of the first ever pharmacist independent prescribers. He was one of the first cohort of NPC Trainers, running educational events in the North West. He now works 2 days per week in a busy general practice in Blackpool, with the rest of his week occupied as clinical lead for ambulance commissioning, covering the 999 paramedic emergency service, NHS111 and patient transport services across the northwest, and as a clinical advisor for urgent care to the NHS England regional team. He also runs a smallholding farm in the North West of England (follow his antics on various social media outlets via https://sites.google.com/view/monkhallfarm/homeJonathan and Magnus discuss what a typical day in general practice could look like for Magnus, how he prioritises his workload, deals with complexity and what particular skills a clinical pharmacist brings to the primary care team. Useful sources discussed include: PINCER - Pharmacist-led Information technology iNtervention for the reduction of Clinically important ERrors in medicines managementhttps://healthinnovationwessex.org.uk/projects/56/pincer Estimating the economic effect of harm associated with high risk prescribing of oral non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in England: population based cohort and economic modelling study. BMJ 2024;386:e077880https://www.bmj.com/content/386/bmj-2023-077880 Asthma: effect of excess short-acting β2-agonist (SABA) inhaler prescriptions on healthcare resource utilisationMark L Levy, Toby GD Capstick and Thomas AntalffyBritish Journal of General Practice 2024;  74 (745): 374-376.https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp24X739089 NICE Guideline - Asthma: diagnosis, monitoring and chronic asthma management (Expected publication date: 27 November 2024)https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/gid-ng10186/documents/450Useful PrescQIPP resources (need to be registered and logged into the website to access):Asthma bulletin 251https://www.prescqipp.info/our-resources/bulletins/bulletin-251-asthma/PrescQIPP Asthma e-learning course (pay per use) 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.infoPrescQIPP 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

We are excited to share a clip of our new podcast, 'Talking Meds' with our host Jonathan Underhill and guests, which launces on 20 September.Talking Meds will be available to listen to via your usual podcast system and a new episode will come out every fortnight, on the first and third Friday of each month.Jonathan Underhill has a background as a hospital clinical pharmacist but worked for many, many years at the National Prescribing Centre (NPC) developing innovative ways of teaching therapeutics, evidence-based medicine and clinical decision making to prescribers and their support teams. Until recently, he worked at NICE as a consultant clinical adviser in their Medicines Optimisation Team.Episode 1 launches on Friday 20th September and features guest Magnus Hird to discuss his role, how he prioritises people for medication review as well as two current safety issues that have recently been in the news. Magnus is a pioneer of clinical pharmacists working in General Practice and one of the first ever pharmacist independent prescribers. He was one of the first cohort of NPC Trainers, running educational events in the North West. He now works two days per week in a busy general practice in Blackpool, with the rest of his week occupied as clinical lead for ambulance commissioning, covering the 999 paramedic emergency service, NHS111 and patient transport services across the northwest, and as a clinical advisor for urgent care to the NHS England regional team. He also runs a smallholding farm in the North West of England (follow his antics on various social media outlets via https://sites.google.com/view/monkhallfarm/home)Future episodesA series on ’Sensible prescribing in Older people with Jonathan and Lucy’, with consultant geriatrician and author Lucy PollockPenicillin allergy de-labelling with Phil Howard OBENew NICE Menopause guideline with NICE committee member Hayley BerryAs well as topics such as the NICE/SIGN Asthma guideline, depression deprescribing and insomnia So subscribe now to make sure you don't miss an episode.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.infoPrescQIPP 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