The New Medicine Service (NMS) is targeted at people who have been newly prescribed a medicine for a long-term condition (LTC). The service provides support to these patients, helping them to appropriately manage their condition and improve their medication adherence. The underlying purpose of the NMS is to promote the health and well-being of patients who are prescribed new (to them) medicines for a long-term condition in order to:
- reduce symptoms and complications of the long-term condition
- identify any problems with the management of the condition and/or any need for further information or support.
Additionally the service will help patients: make informed choices about their care self-manage their long-term condition adhere to their agreed treatment programme make appropriate lifestyle choices.
Conditions/therapy areas
The NMS is currently targeted towards the following patient groups and conditions: asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) type 2 diabetes antiplatelet/anticoagulant therapy hypertension.
For each condition/therapy area, a list of medicines has been agreed. If a patient is newly prescribed one of these medicines then they will be eligible to receive the service, subject to the pharmacist being able to determine that the medicine is being used to treat one of the above conditions (as in some circumstances a medicine can be used to treat more than one condition).
