As NHS reforms take shape and financial pressures grow, FDB explores how technology-enabled medicines optimisation can help primary care deliver safer, more efficient, and cost-effective prescribing.
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Primary care is on the cusp of a seismic change. The recent abolition of NHS England, the pending consolidation of integrated care boards, and the government’s 10-Year Health Plan will inevitably transform the provision of NHS services, and although we await details, some things are clear and remain unchanged: financial pressures will continue to guide decision-making.
Across ICBs, costs are expected to fall while medicines spend continues to grow – a challenge caused by several factors, including an ageing population, the increased prevalence of complex long-term conditions, and the rising cost of novel therapies. With medicines spending accounting for approximately 10 per cent of the health service budget, we at First Databank (FDB) believe that innovative technologies can play a crucial role in helping ICBs and the wider NHS to achieve financial sustainability by supporting the development and delivery of effective medicines optimisation strategies.
FDB has already helped save the NHS more than £500m through the use of our market-leading medicines optimisation solution, FDB OptimiseRx, and we believe there’s still so much opportunity within the system to facilitate both direct savings while also encouraging cost avoidance. Preventing medication errors, addressing problematic polypharmacy and overprescribing, limiting pharmaceutical waste, and encouraging the use of cost-effective therapies that not only improve efficiency but also improve patient safety and outcomes must also be key to any medicines optimisation strategy.
The collaboration of ICBs, neighbourhood health teams, and individual practices are uniquely positioned to drive medicines optimisation forward, but realising these opportunities requires more than a well-meaning strategy – it demands alignment of tools, resources, and people. Here, the role of technology becomes indispensable, and allows primary care to potentially do more with less. The right medicines optimisation solutions can support organisations to reduce unwarranted variation across prescribing and optimise patient outcomes, while also driving efficiencies across a team by reducing time spent on administrative tasks, giving clinicians a holistic view of their patients’ care and allowing them to focus more on patient-facing activities.
However, technology is just one part of the solution. Medicines optimisation initiatives benefit immensely from a whole-systems approach, ensuring alignment with organisational goals. Strong communication and collaboration across both ICB and practice level, and processes that allow teams to come together to share guidance and best practice can ensure that concerted efforts are not siloed but amplified.
FDB takes great pride in having supported primary care and the wider NHS with software solutions designed to strengthen medicines safety and optimisation efforts, and our results reflect the quality of our partnerships with our customers. However, there remain significant opportunities for all of us to deepen our collective effort, and we remain committed to being a key partner in the NHS’s mission to ensure medicine use represents value, safety, and efficacy across the board.
For more information on FDB, get in touch at contact@fdbhealth.com
