Medicines management
The South Tyneside Medicines Management Committee was established in September 2011. The Committee is responsible for the clinical decision making and advice in relation to prescribing and medicines management commissioned by NHS South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group and provided by South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust and all primary care independent contractor organisations. It aims to promote collaborative working and seamless care across all sectors of healthcare for South Tyneside patients.
New Drugs Policy
The committee is responsible for approval of new drugs and extending the use of existing formulary drugs to new indications for the production of the South Tyneside Formulary which provides details of medicines that are approved for use in South Tyneside. Decisions around new drug requests take into consideration safety, clinical effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness relative to other treatment options for the condition under discussion, as well as the potential available budget. Decisions will be made on fully published trial data only.
Formulary
The South Tyneside primary care Formulary is produced under the direction of the committee. It gives details of medicines that are approved for use in NHS and independent contractor organisations in South Tyneside.
Medicines with a positive NICE Technology Appraisal will be automatically added to the local formulary. This process should take place within 3 months of the date of publication of the NICE Technology Appraisal. Where NICE states “option for treatment”, the medicine will be added to the local formulary and if necessary its place in the relevant local care pathway(s) be defined or if it is not the preferred option in the current pathway, the medicine will appear in the formulary with the following note “not a preferred option in the current pathway but is available on individual patient basis as per NICE Technology Appraisal”.
Decision Summary
Below are summaries of decisions made at recent meetings of the committee regarding new drug requests: