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A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH TO IMPLEMENT SHARED CARE AGREEMENTS FOR AMIODARONE THERAPY

European Statement

Patient Safety and Quality Assurance

Author(s)

K. Joyce, D. Jukes, F. Stewart

Why was it done?

In 2023, the drug formularies across Northeast and North Cumbria integrated care system were merged, with amiodarone allocated an ‘amber’ shared care status.

NHS England guidance recommends that existing patients taking amiodarone in primary care should be reviewed to ensure prescribing remains safe and appropriate and that a shared care agreement is introduced.

The pharmacy team aimed to implement this guidance, with minimum impact on clinician workload. The approach was steered by NHS England’s comments, in June 2024, regarding the importance of teams working together to meet the pressures and demands of primary and secondary care under the direction of the integrated care board (ICB).

What was done?

County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust (CDDFT) pharmacy team worked collaboratively across the primary-secondary care interface to implement shared care agreements.

How was it done?

The ICB medicines optimisation team worked with the CDDFT pharmacists to engage GPs and cardiologists across the interface, creating a work-plan to share resources.

An audit tool was designed to capture patients prescribed amiodarone in the 61 GP practices across County Durham, which was completed by pharmacy staff within primary care networks.

Cardiology pharmacists in secondary care reviewed the data, triaging patients according to: indication, monitoring requirements, those requiring consultant review and those who could potentially stop treatment.

What has been achieved?

The audit, returning data for 129 patients, identified 93 patients without shared care. For half of these, discontinuation was considered as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence explicitly recommends against use in atrial fibrillation. For the remaining, shared care agreements have been implemented with minimal impact on clinician time, primary care capacity and secondary care referrals.

The audit found 21% of patients without a shared care agreement were not receiving the recommended monitoring, compared to 100% receiving correct monitoring when one was in place. It may be anticipated that implementation will improve patient safety and experience through detection and avoidance of adverse events.

What next?

This initiative demonstrates the ICB and pharmacy successfully bridging care settings to improve patient care and experience and overcome challenges.

Building on these established relationships across the interface this work provides a model for sustainable collaboration on future shared care work.

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