Across Wales there are differences in how domiciliary medicines support is delivered within the 7 Health Board and 22 Local Authority areas. The support is delivered by Local Authorities and Health Boards either using their own staff or via commissioned agencies. The majority of health boards are actively working with their respective Local Authorities to review their existing policies and support, alongside how the support is delivered. Along with the Social Services and Well Being Act (2014), A Healthier Wales and NICE Guidelines 67 (2017), this presents an ideal opportunity to develop national guiding principles in relation to medicines support within the domiciliary setting.
These principles have been developed in partnership with the All Wales Heads of Adults' Services Group (AWASH) and NHS Wales to provide a template for the development of medicines policies so that medicines support is delivered in a consistent way across Wales.
This work is supported and endorsed as good practice by the following organisations:
- Care inspectorate Wales
- Social Care Wales
- The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
- The Royal Pharmaceutical Society
The principles are also supported by the Involved & Informed medicines campaign, which is a multi-organisation initiative promoting safe, person-centred medicines support across social care and health. It encourages key audiences to take specific actions from NICE's guideline and quality standard on Managing medicines in the community and aims to ensure that people accessing medicines support feel involved, informed and in control of their medicines.
