The Discharge Medicine Service (DMS) is an essential NHS service that all community pharmacies in England must provide. It helps patients who have recently been discharged from the hospital and need extra support with their medicines.
The service aims to:
Reduce harm from medicines by ensuring patients are using the correct medications after leaving the hospital.
Prevent hospital readmissions caused by medication issues.
Improve communication between hospital, primary care, and community pharmacy teams.
How the Service Works
Hospital Referral: When a patient is discharged, the hospital team digitally refers them to their chosen community pharmacy. This referral includes all the patient's updated medication information.
Medicines Reconciliation: A pharmacist or pharmacy technician compares the patient's medicines from before their hospital stay with the new ones they have been discharged with.
Patient Consultation: The pharmacy team has a consultation with the patient or their carer to ensure they understand all the changes to their medications and how to take them correctly. This consultation typically happens when the patient picks up their first post-discharge prescription.
What a referral includes
To ensure safe and effective care, a DMS referral from the hospital must contain at least the following information:
Patient's full name, contact details, and NHS number.
A complete list of all medicines the patient is using at discharge (including prescribed, over-the-counter, and specialist medicines).
Any changes made to the patient's medicines, along with the reason for the change.
Contact details for the hospital department in case the pharmacy has a query.
Training and Competence Requirements
To provide the DMS safely and effectively, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians must ensure they are competent. As a minimum, you should:
Read and understand the DMS section within the NHS England guidance on the regulations.
Read and understand the NHS DMS toolkit.
Complete the DMS Declaration of Competence to confirm your knowledge.
It is also highly recommended that you complete the CPPE NHS Discharge Medicines Service e-learning and assessment to reinforce your understanding of the service.