The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has published guidance on polypharmacy for all healthcare organisations involved with medicines.

The guidance – Polypharmacy: Getting our medicines right – provides a summary of the scale and complexity of polypharmacy; outlines how healthcare professionals, patients and carers can find solutions when polypharmacy causes problems; and points to useful resources that can help. It recommends that all healthcare organisations have systems in place to ensure people taking 10 or more medicines can be identified and highlighted for a comprehensive medication review with a pharmacist.

At the time of its launch, Tess Fenn, then president of the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK, commented: “Pharmacy technicians and other healthcare professionals have an opportunity to address this [health challenge] and to support patients and the public. APTUK are pleased to have been instrumental in the development of [the guidance]. The best practice recommendations in this guidance aim to explain the responsibilities that everyone has around problematic polypharmacy and the resources will guide pharmacy professionals to take a lead role in enabling behavioural and system change.”