In support of the national roll out of the Medicines: Care and Review (MCR) service for community pharmacy in February 2021, NES launched a new e-learning module which provides an overview of the service and describes both aspects of the service specification. In addition, a detailed tool kit (Serial Prescribing Toolkit) has been developed to support community pharmacy contractors with the delivery of serial prescribing which complements the existing learning resources which are already live on the NES platform.
Serial prescribing as part of MCR is a focus across Lothian and it is likely that you will see an increase in serial prescriptions so please make sure that you have familiarised yourself with this training.
***ESSENTIAL INFORMATION***
We know there's a lot of information in this section, so if you've just joined community pharmacy and need to get up to speed quickly, here are some TOP TIPS....
1) Have a look at TURAS for up-to-date learning resources - https://learn.nes.nhs.scot/12539/pharmacy/cpd-resources/medicines-care-and-review
2) Make sure you know HOW to claim for serial prescriptions on your PMR, and ENSURE you claim on the day the patient collects
3) COMMUNICATE with GP Practices to find out who the best contact is for resolving serial prescription queries, and COMMUNICATE with other pharmacies for peer support
You will also find useful MCR resources here:
The Medicines: Care and Review section of the NHS NSS website
Revised serial prescription toolkit for Primary Care (launched Oct 2021) on the Health Improvement Scotland (HIS) website
Serial Prescribing Video: https://vimeo.com/343231653 - includes electronic messages, serial script lifecycle, cancellations, what GPs see
Serial Prescribing Management Video: https://vimeo.com/343232598 – includes patient registrations, script synchronization, how to handle PRNs, Treatment Summary Reports, Standard Operating Procedures
Serial Prescribing Message Awareness and Housekeeping Video https://vimeo.com/343233143 – missing messages, amended/cancelled claims, uncollected items, expired scripts, IT connectivity problems
A short refresher video for pharmacies and surgeries, produced by NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ib3E55aCHs
The PCR (Pharmacy Care Record) system continues to be used as the main way to record MCR medicine reviews with patients, and to record communications with patients' GPs. Please see our PCR section for lots of useful information and links.
It is vital that pharmacy teams send electronic claims on the same day the patient picks up their latest dispensing via an MCR serial script. Marking the item as 'collected' on the pharmacy's Patient Medicine Record systems does NOT automatically send the electronic claim off - all pharmacy systems currently require serial script claims to be sent manually every time. If claims are not being sent, these collection dates are not populating the GP and Emergency Care System records which results in incomplete compliance information and greater patient risk.
Here is a list of useful documents to help pharmacies:
If you have any queries or questions regarding MCR, please contact us here at the Community Pharmacy Development Team: CPDT@nhs.scot