 | | | We support the safe, effective and efficient use of medicines by providing quality evidence based information and advice |
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‘The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it’
-Samuel Johnson |
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| | | | About us:
| | At the Regional Drug and Therapeutics Centre we provide a comprehensive answering service to support NHS healthcare professionals deal with clinical questions across a
wide range of therapeutic, pharmaceutical and pharmacological issues. This service is available during office hours (9.00 – 17.00). We are one of 14 Regional Medicines Information Centres within the UKMi network which collaborate to provide medicine information products available via the RDTC and UKMI websites (www.ukmi.nhs.uk). These include New Drug Evaluations, Monthly Horizon Scanning Reports, Evaluation Reports, Safer Medication Usee bulletins, Drug updates , and Medicines Q&As. Some of these can also be accessed via NHS Evidence (www.evidence.nhs.uk). |
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| | | Why use our Medicines Information Service? | | In recent years the impact of the internet has led to an increasing amount of information being available to patients and prescriber. Access to a broad range of reputable resources can be expensive. Literature searches, evaluating evidence and formulating an evidence based answer can be time consuming and impractical for a busy healthcare professional. |
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| | | How to access our Medicines Information Service?
| | The telephone enquiry answering service is available during office hours (9.00 -17.00). Non-urgent enquiries may also be emailed via ‘submit an
enquiry’ on the MI page of our website. |
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| | | Our Staff | | We are a multidisciplinary team
consisting of Pharmacists, Medical Information Scientists and Nurses. Additional medical support is provided by a consultant physician. |
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| | | Our Resources | | Along with the knowledge and experience of our staff, our resources include a wide range of pharmaceutical and biomedical information, such as online databases, books, journals, and in-house files. We utilise standard UKMi search strategies to find the most relevant information in a systematic, accurate and timely manner.
Useful Links |
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| | | Who can use our service? | | We can answer
enquiries from both Primary and Secondary Care NHS health professionals in the former Northern and Yorkshire Region. Secondary care
We answer MI enquiries from secondary care in support of their existing internal MI arrangements. This means that the caller will have consulted the more common core resources and then contact us for
clarification or further research of a complex enquiry. We also offer non-enquiry answering support to the MI Services within secondary care throughout our region e.g. support for training or audit. Enquiries regarding a hospital inpatient or one treated recently in secondary care, or on medicines which have recently been initiated in secondary care, should be referred to the relevant local MI centre in the first instance. Follow this link for a directory of Medicines Information Services. Trusts based in Yorkshire would normally approach Leeds RMIC as a first port of call.
Primary Care
We offer support for all MI enquiries from the following locations:
North East & Cumbria
North Yorkshire & Humber
West Yorkshire
| Our service is offered to all primary care NHS healthcare professionals
including GPs, Community Pharmacists, CCG and CSU Medicines Optimisation teams, practice pharmacists, nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals If you are a member of the public requiring advice about medicines, please consult your local community pharmacy, 111, NHS Direct or Medicines and drugs - NHS Choices
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| | | What type of Enquiries Can We Answer? | | Patient Specific or
General Enquiries
| Herbal or complementary medicines | | Administration of
Medicines | Pharmaceutical | | Drugs in Pregnancy | Pharmacology |
| Drugs in Lactation | Adverse Effects | | Drug Interactions | Pharmacokinetics | | Drug Identification | Substance Misuse | | Indications or contra- indications | |
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| Clinical Governance | | As part of the UKMI network, our service conforms to national standards and specifications. Our centre is audited regularly and we can also provide audits to local MI centres within our area. We follow legal and ethical guidance produced by UKMI and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. All of our enquiries are peer reviewed. |
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| | | Confidentiality | | We are an NHS service and are bound by Caldicott Guidelines and the data
Protection Act. |
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