Anxiety or fear of recrimination among carers may be counterproductive. This research suggests that the administration of medicines in some care homes may not always be managed within a blame-free culture. 1. Alldred DP, Barber N, Buckle P et al. (2009). Care Home Use of Medicines Study. Medication errors in nursing and residential homes – prevalence, consequences, causes and solutions. Report to the Patient Safety Research Portfolio, Department of Health, London. R. Rowlandsa,b, K. Hodsonb, L. Hughesb, C. Waya,c, D. Warmc aCardiff and Vale University Health Board, Cardiff, UK, bCardiff University, Cardiff, RG7204 clinical trial UK, cNHS Wales Informatics Service,
Cardiff, UK The study aimed to explore the public’s views on community pharmacists receiving electronic hospital Discharge Advice Letters (DALs). Five focus groups were held across Wales; participants included both non-users and regular users of community pharmacies. Participants were largely supportive of community pharmacists receiving at least some of the information
contained in the DAL, although several concerns were raised, most notably the potentially sensitive nature of the clinical details included and the security of the p38 MAPK inhibitor information being transferred. Hospital discharge summaries are vital in ensuring continuity of patient care across primary and secondary care settings and must provide reliable, complete information which is received within a reasonable time frame1. The NHS Wales Informatics Service has developed a new Medicines Transcribing and e-discharge (MTeD) system to transfer DALs to General Practitioners faster, more efficiently and more consistently. It has been proposed that DALs could also be sent electronically to community pharmacists for the purpose of conducting a Discharge Medicines Review (DMR). The aim of this study was to ascertain the views of the public across Wales on community pharmacists receiving DALs electronically. Ethical approval was sought and granted for the study. Established groups across five Health Boards in Wales were invited to attend a focus group. These included people likely to
be community pharmacy users and those who were not. Patients who had completed the DMR process in the previous 6 months were also invited, via their community pharmacist, to Carnitine palmitoyltransferase II attend focus groups in the remaining two Health Boards. All focus group discussions were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically. Focus groups of four to eight participants were held across three Health Boards with five established groups: an older person’s forum, a Community Health Council (CHC), a chronic condition support group, a parent and toddler group and a young persons’ social group. Twenty-eight participants with a range of ages, level of qualification and employment status were included. Six main themes and twenty nine subthemes were identified.