The new medicine service (NMS) was developed to improve adherence to medicines newly prescribed to people with the following long-term conditions, where adherence is particularly important for clinical benefit:

• Asthma and COPD
• Type 2 diabetes
• Antiplatelet/anticoagulant therapy
• Hypertension.

It is hoped that the successful implementation of the NMS will:

• Improve patient adherence, which will generally lead to better health outcomes
• Increase patient engagement with their condition and their medicines, supporting patients in making decisions about their treatment and self-management
• Reduce medicines wastage
• Reduce hospital admissions caused by adverse events from medicines
• Lead to increased Yellow Card reporting of adverse reactions to medicines by pharmacists and patients, thereby supporting improved pharmacovigilance
• Receive positive assessment from patients
• Improve the evidence base on the effectiveness of the service
• Support the development of outcome and/or quality measures for community pharmacy.

If a patient is newly prescribed a hypertension medicine (see box, left), they will be eligible to receive the NMS, subject to the pharmacist being able to determine that the medicine is being used to treat hypertension in circumstances where a medicine can be used to treat multiple conditions. When an approved medicine for hypertension is prescribed for the first time, the pharmacist must offer the patient opportunistic advice on healthy living/public health topics in line with the promotion of the healthy lifestyles essential service. Interventions can be carried out face to face in a consultation area or if necessary by telephone, ensuring suitable patient confidentiality can be maintained.

The pharmacist can assess adherence, address problems and provide advice and support at the first intervention meeting one to two weeks after first dispensing, before arranging a follow up meeting after two to three weeks. A record should be made of the intervention and follow up interviews and these will need to be kept for two years. Patients who participate in the NMS will not normally be eligible for a medicines use review (MUR) within six months unless there is a specific reason.