Focus Group - Medicines Waste Campaign

Jackie McCallum, Improvement Adviser, NHS Tayside and Frances Rooney, Head of Pharmacy, Perth and Kinross CHP, NHS Tayside, would like to invite members of the public to a focus group. This will be held on Thursday 28 July 2011 at 2.00pm within Kings Cross.

Both Jackie and Frances are part of the Medicines Leadership Project Team and are currently planning a Medicines Waste campaign. They would very much like to involve the public in the planning and development of resources for the campaign.

Unused medicines cost the NHS millions of pounds every year. Around £100 million in wasted medicine is returned to pharmacies for safe disposal annually. The annual budget for prescribed medicines in NHS Tayside is £100 million and medicines waste or unused medicines currently accounts for around 10% of this. Reducing medicines waste cuts across the whole of the prescribing improvement project which aims to improve the quality of prescribing and reduce variation and harm in the use of medicines. A reduction in medicines will also contribute to improving patient safety and reducing harm.

The purpose of the focus group is to gather public’s views on the campaign and draft resources, such as public information leaflets and posters. It will also be an opportunity for members of the public to find out more about the campaign and also give views on how the campaign can be promoted and how best to get the key messages across to the wider public.

Target Audience of the Campaign


· Patients, especially those on repeat prescriptions and who, for a variety of reasons, order some medicines they actually never use or complete
· Healthcare professionals including doctors, pharmacists and hospital staff who interact with patients on a daily basis
· Carers and care workers who look after people who can’t collect their own medicines

Key messages of the campaign particularly target carers and care workers to get them to stop and think about what they are ordering on behalf of someone and checking what the person they care for does have in stock.

We would welcome carers' views on how to help promote the key campaign messages to carers as well as the wider patient population.

If you feel this is an activity you would be interested in participating in and you feel you can contribute to then please email/phone etc to book a place: ppg.tayside@nhs.net or by telephoning the freephone number 0800 7836110 by Monday 18 July 2011.