Delivering a fully-comprehensive pharmacy service to the ward dramatically improved the working relationship between the ward and the pharmacy department; shortening the length of time for a prescription to be completed, decreasing the amount of medication dispensed and allowing considerable financial savings to be made. Anecdotally,

positive patient feedback increased concerning the length of time waiting for a prescription. Medical and nursing staff found having a dedicated pharmacy team for the ward useful and contributed to an efficient ward environment. Pharmacy staff had some difficulty finding cover for the ward during periods of absence and this Src inhibitor issue should be considered and resolved during commissioning. Anecdotally patients

with long-term conditions were more likely to bring in their medication, patients were happy to allow their medication to be kept by the nursing staff. The pre-assessment process was reviewed and the find more letter inviting patients to pre-assessment was altered to better encourage patients to bring in their medication. Collaboration with the NHS North East Medicines Management Behaviour Change Project led to robust information gathering about the Green Medicines Bag Scheme. Further collaboration between primary and secondary care is needed to fully realise the potential of using patients’ own medication within the Trust. Better data collection for waste and patient safety interventions made on the ward should be recorded – considerable interventions were made as part of medicines reconciliation but these were poorly recorded. In conclusion, a dedicated pharmacy

service for a ward can decrease spending on regularly-prescribed medication through an increase use of PODs and shorten the length of time required for a discharge prescription to be dispensed. Further development of pharmacies role within pre-assessment should be considered to take advantage of this service. A pharmacist or technician-led discharge service should be investigated as a plausible way of improving the amount of patients-own drugs used at discharge. 1. Chan EW, Taylor SE, Marriott JL, Barger B, Bringing patients’ own medications into an emergency department by ambulance: effect on prescribing accuracy Sinomenine when these patients are admitted to hospital. Med J Aust 2009; 191: 374–377 accessed at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19807626 2. Bracey G, Miller G, Franklin BD, Jacklin A, Gaskin G. The contribution of a pharmacy admissions service to patient care. Clin Med. 2008; 8: 53–57. accessed at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18335670 Wasim Baqir, Aoife Hendrick, Scott Barrett, David Campbell Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, North Shields, UK This study aimed to assess patients and professionals attitudes to returned medicines. Two thirds of patients and health professionals believe that returned medicines should be reused.