EndocrinologyMedicine Use Reviews To Get First National Audit
The nation"s first online audit of Medicines Use Reviews (MURs) is being launched tomorrow
to enable Primary Care Organisations and pharmacists to review how effective MURs are.
The project is a partnership between the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain
(RPSGB), the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Clinical Audit Support Centre
Limited.
The audit is aimed at four groups; Community Pharmacy, General Practice, Primary Care
Organisations (PCOs) and patients that have undertaken an MUR, who are being asked to
feedback on the quality and effectiveness of them. These results are then fed into the MUR
audit on the website http://www.qi4pd.org.uk.
Members of these four groups are being urged to participate so their views can contribute to
the national data and, where appropriate, work can be done to improve the quality of MURs.
Currently there is no method to assess MURs and how successful they are, and the audit is an
important exercise as funding often rewards the number of MURs that are undertaken and little
data is collected on the quality of the service.
RPSGB Head of Practice, Heidi Wright says; "This audit will help us to get a national picture of
MURs so we know how well they are received and if the service can be improved.
"For MURs to be successful we need them to be fully embraced by not only pharmacists, but
also by patients and other healthcare providers. It is also crucial that we can provide
consistent national data on MURs to ensure future funding and the potential to imbed the
service into patient care pathways."
The MUR audit has to be initiated by the PCO so they can decide on the exact process for
their participants and can ensure that all groups participate. Guidance on the recommended
process is provided at www.gi4pd.org.uk and you will need to register to the site to enter any
data. It is recommended that the audit is carried out for a period of four weeks or until a
specific number of MURs have been completed. This audit would be seen as one of the
multidisciplinary audits that pharmacists need to carry out as part of their contractual
requirements in England and Wales.
Notes
1. The MUR audit pharmacy and patient data may either be entered directly by a
pharmacist / pharmacy staff or by an administrator at the PCO. The GP and PCO data
will be entered by the PCO. More information on how the audit is carried out is
available from the website after you have registered to the site.
2. It is anticipated that, over time, more electronic audit templates will be added to this
website to enable pharmacists and PCO to upload their data and compare results
within the PCO and against national data.
3. This website now also contains the online training modules on Clinical Governance
which can be accessed after registering with the site. If you have previously registered
at http://www.cg4cp.org.uk you will automatically be registered with the new site and will be
redirected to http://www.qi4pd.org.uk
Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain