The NICE Medicines and Prescribing Centre has been commissioned to develop supporting good practice guidance on local medicines formularies. This is likely to be published by the end of 2012. In advance of the publication of that guidance Dr Keith Ridge, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, has written a letter to NHS acute, mental health and primary care chief pharmacists, England and strategic health authority pharmacy and prescribing leads, encouraging action to review local formulary processes to begin implementation of the Innovation Health and Wealth (IHW) action. This work should be undertaken in collaboration with emerging clinical commissioning groups and in a way that not only supports the IHW action, but considers:
- local clinical and patient needs
- how best to reduce inappropriate variation
- how best to optimise medicines use
- whether there is scope to reduce any administrative burdens of formulary maintenance.
Local medicines formularies have an important role in underpinning safe and effective use of medicines. It is also important that they support the introduction into practice of NICE technology appraisal recommendations.
The NHS Chief Executive’s report Innovation Health and Wealth sets out a broad range of actions, under a programme of work being led by Sir Ian Carruthers. The whole programme is being implemented in partnership with the life sciences industry, and include a commitment to:
‘require that all NICE technology appraisal recommendations are incorporated automatically into relevant local NHS formularies in a planned way that supports safe and appropriate clinical practice.’
David Nicholson wrote to NHS CEOs on the 9 August, on the work, and alerted colleagues to a requirement to publish local NHS formularies by 1 April 2013.