MURs by trained technicians

[kemzero]

Techs should be able to support pharmacists doing MURs - I have no problem with them selling the service to patients and filling in some of the paperwork beforehand. In fact I know a great way a tech could support me doing MURs - be a checking tech so I don't have to worry about the pile of scripts from the surgery.

And seriously, if MURs were delegated to techs, do you think the govt. would pay £25 per MUR? I doubt it. It's also difficult enough to get GPs on side as it is. It would be almost impossible if it was techs doing them.

I am quite happy to delegate technical tasks where possible, but not cognitive services. We need to be comfortable with MURs before we can move on to prescribing. Delegating to techs wont help at all.

Point taken! I guess its all about maintaining bounderies , a tech with a clinical pharmacy post graduate qualification should be able to do MURs , as MURs are not even supposed to be clinical. In my opinion the pharmacist MUST sign it off though. Less qualified people currently provide stop smoking advice/treatment . Its all in the mix....I mean about skill mix !

[ramroum]

Combined Oral Contraceptives??
Maybe we should ban the use of Acromyns on this forum they can be somewhat confusing..what say you all?

Dear Kem,

Thank you. It is good to keep the abbreviations but with an explanation about what they are to learn from it.

[Zoggite]

Techs should be able to support pharmacists doing MURs - I have no problem with them selling the service to patients and filling in some of the paperwork beforehand. In fact I know a great way a tech could support me doing MURs - be a checking tech so I don't have to worry about the pile of scripts from the surgery.

And seriously, if MURs were delegated to techs, do you think the govt. would pay £25 per MUR? I doubt it. It's also difficult enough to get GPs on side as it is. It would be almost impossible if it was techs doing them.

I am quite happy to delegate technical tasks where possible, but not cognitive services. Delegating to techs wont help at all.

Steve,
you echo my views perfectly.
Besides, how can you "sign off" a Medicines Use Review? (no acronyms, remember?!)A significant part of the benefits of such reviews is to communicate with the patient, listen to them and respond to their worries/queries, and to get them to take ownership of their medication regime, thus increasing concordance; we'll miss that target completely if we just delegate the "one-to-one" bit and let our only involvement in the whole review be a byro-stain on the bottom of a form...

We need to be comfortable with MURs before we can move on to prescribing.

I still maintain that I have been "prescribing" since the first day that I qualified; just because I don't use green bits of paper and I restrict myself to medicines that don't have a little square that says "POM" (or Prescription-Only Medicine), doesn't mean it's not prescribing?!?

[Steve G]

Ok then, prescribing at NHS expense, including POMs.

[Linnear]

Ok then, prescribing at NHS expense, including POMs.

Shouldn't that be National Health Service not NHS?

[Zoggite]

Shouldn't that be National Health Service not NHS?

Or, as it's St David's Day tomorrow,"Gwasanaeth Gwybodaeth Iechyd Cymru"

[Linnear]

Or, as it's St David's Day tomorrow,"Gwasanaeth Gwybodaeth Iechyd Cymru"

Gesundheit!

[taskerrose]

techs in hospital undertake drug histories (once trained) ok it still has to be validated by a pharmacist but we do the job really well, we also talk to patients on managing medicines advising them how to take their medicines correctly and storage you would not believe the no of patients who have no clue on short expiry products such as eye drops etc, yes I know community pharmacists are really buzy and do not have the time to talk to all the patients personally at the point of collection but that's where a good well trained tech comes in, picking up the more mundane tasks to free up the pharmacist. It all boils down to training and keeping skills up to date as the role of pharmacy keeps changing,