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The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) chief executive Henry Gregg has warned the Government that pharmacists’ skills in tackling the growing problem of polypharmacy are being “underutilised by the NHS”.

Responding to an investigation in The Sunday Times at the weekend which revealed 1,000 elderly patients are being sent to A&E every day because of “an over-prescribing epidemic”, Gregg (pictured) pointed to the “woefully low” take-up of the Discharge Medicines Service (DMS) in hospitals in England to illustrate how the health service is failing to make the most of pharmacists’ expertise. The service launched in 2021.

Community Pharmacy England has said the number of DMS referrals will “inevitably vary from pharmacy to pharmacy, even when the service is fully mature, as the patient profile of individual pharmacies and the likelihood of their patients being admitted to hospital and then being referred to the DMS at discharge will vary”.

Describing the large numbers of elderly patients ending up in hospital “due to confusion with their medicines” as “a crisis”, Gregg said: “So far, the skills of pharmacists, who are experts in medicines, have been underutilised by the NHS in tackling this problem and we need a cultural shift if we are to fully grip this problem.

"It should sound major alarm bells in the NHS that only a third of severely frail and housebound patients are receiving the help that could be offered from their local pharmacy to manage their medicines.

"The current rate of take up of the Discharge Medicines Service in hospitals is woefully low in most parts of the country and is meaning many people are being readmitted to hospital for simply not supported enough with the medicines they have been prescribed.”

The Times investigation also revealed nearly eight million people over the age of 50 take five medicines a day and around 2.2 million take 10 a day.

Gregg added: "By scaling up medicine reviews and the discharge medicine service in hospital, we could help save hundreds of millions of pounds, reduce the amount of medicines prescribed and help those who need it stay in the community and out of hospital."