Guidance on the Care of Patients in Nursing Homes and Residential Care settings
The provision of patient care and pharmacy services to patients residing in residential care settings and nursing homes is a key patient safety and professional practice issue. Pharmacists play a critical role in the healthcare team caring for these patients, particularly in ensuring safe and appropriate supply and management of medicines.
This section provides guidance and support to pharmacists providing care to these patients, in line with legal and good practice requirements.
Safe Supply of Medicines
This guidance is a revised version of the ‘PSI Practice Notice
1/2010-supply by pharmacists of medicines to patients in residential
care settings/nursing homes’. Amendments have been made following
working with the practice notice for the last number of years and in
response to queries received by the PSI. The amendments clarify a number
of elements of interactions between pharmacies and nursing homes
relating to the importance of prescriptions, the appropriate delivery of
medicines and the essential role of the pharmacist in the counselling
of patients in residential care/nursing homes. The guidance has also
been updated to include a self-audit checklist to aid pharmacists in
assessing their current practice.
Supply of Controlled Drugs
The purpose of this explanatory note is to set out the requirements under the Misuse of Drugs Acts for the supply of Schedule 2 and Schedule 3 controlled drugs to patients in nursing homes. It sets out the important distinction between public nursing homes and private nursing homes and the obligation on pharmacists to ensure the lawful supply of these medicines to patients.
Other Resources
There are a number of additional resources listed below which are intended to assist in the provision of safe and appropriate patient
care and pharmacy services to patients in residential care settings/nursing homes.