Plans to fund 60 pharmacy technicians and 180 pharmacists to work in care homes to help reduce over-medication and cut unnecessary hospital stays have been announced by NHS England and welcomed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS).

“Our overstretched NHS is crying out for solutions and this one is bang on target,” said RPS England board chair Sandra Gidley in response to the plans, which will see around 180,000 people living in nursing or residential homes have their prescriptions and medicines reviewed by the new pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.

The use of clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to undertake structured medicines reviews of all new and discharged care home residents in Northumberland showed that one hospital readmission could be avoided for every 12 residents reviewed.

Ms Gidley added: “Concerns about the fact that too many care home residents take too many medicines, which do them more harm than good were the driving force behind our care homes campaign which began in 2016.

“This significant investment of £20m by NHS England from the Pharmacy Integration Fund helps meet those concerns and recognises that pharmacy teams can provide better health outcomes for care home residents, improve efficiency and reduce medicines waste.”

• The need to reduce antibiotic prescribing in care homes has also recently been flagged by the RPS.