Last Updated on October 19, 2016
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is developing a new guideline to help adults who are receiving social care support at home to manage their medicines safely and correctly. The draft guideline on medicines support in home care, which is being published for consultation, says health and social care staff should support people to take direct responsibility for their own medicines wherever possible, with help from family or carers if needed.
The latest report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) into the state of the care system in England said home care services that were rated as 'Outstanding' achieved this mainly because staff took enough time to have meaningful discussions with people.
The draft guideline says staff should discuss needs and preferences with each individual and record decisions about what support they need in their personal home care plan.
If a home care worker needs to offer support, the guideline outlines how to approach this. It covers areas such as ordering prescriptions, administering medicines and what records to take.
To ensure staff are able to effectively carry out their roles, the guideline says home care providers should ensure they receive adequate training in medicines’ support. Home care workers should also be told when and how to seek help and advice.
The draft guideline also sets out how services should share information to ensure people get the same high-quality care if they have to move settings or change providers. For instance, it says prescribers should avoid only passing on information about changes to a person’s medicines verbally.
All changes should be confirmed in written form and should be shared with the person themselves, a named contact responsible for their care and ideally with their community pharmacist.
Anne Bentley, Lead Pharmacist for East Lancashire CCG and Chair of the group that developed the NICE guideline, said, 'More and more people are using home care services and this will often include help with managing their medicines. If people do not take their medicines properly they may end up in hospital or become overly reliant on NHS services.
'People receiving social care support so they can stay living in their own home may already have much to worry about. We want to support people to be as independent as possible so they can take their medicines safely and get the most from their treatment.
'This guideline covers how medicines’ support should be planned and delivered, with health and social care providers sharing accurate and up-to-date information, and working together to deliver high-quality care.'
The draft guideline also calls for a 'fair blame' culture, where people, family members, carers and home care workers are able to freely talk about when things go wrong. It says allowing people to raise concerns can minimise harm and help improve their care in the future.
It states that home care providers should have robust processes in place that encourage people to report issues. Home care workers should make people aware of these processes so they know who to complain to and which organisations can support them.
Anne Bentley added, 'We now want to hear from people working in health and social care, as well as the public on whether we have these recommendations right.'
Consultation on the draft guideline is open until 11th November 2016.