NMS and MURs

If you offer an MUR to a patient within six months of the NMS being provided, an alert appears.

This does not prevent you from conducting the MUR. In your judgement, where for example the patient has multiple long term conditions, you believe there will be a benefit to the patient, this will be allowed.

  • Click the Yes button to continue with the MUR.

  • Click theNobutton to abort the MUR.

The PSNC provides guidance on the relationship between the NMS and MURs from which the following extracts are taken:

The NMS aims to provide early support to patients who are newly prescribed a medicine for a long term condition with repeated follow-up in the short term to increase effective medicine taking. This will establish a relationship between the patient and a pharmacist early on and will help to ensure that patients are taking their medicines correctly from the beginning. The MUR service involves reviews that are centred around adherence for patients on multiple or high risk medicines, particularly those receiving medicines for long term conditions. Patients undertaking an MUR will have been taking their medicines for a period of time and may well not be taking them correctly. An MUR can help to address these issues. An MUR can normally be undertaken on a patient every twelve months.

It has been agreed that patients should not normally be eligible for an MUR within six months of completing the NMS due to the similarities between the services. The intention is to prevent patients who undergo the NMS being referred immediately for an MUR and to establish a separation between the services in the eyes of patients.

This exclusion period does not apply if a patient first receives an MUR. For example, a patient may have already received an MUR for current medication but is then prescribed a new medicine for a long term condition. In this case the patient is eligible to receive the NMS within six months of having an MUR.

The patient will not normally be eligible for a Medicines Use Review (MUR) within six months of completing the service, unless in the reasonable opinion of the pharmacist the patient would benefit from an MUR during that period. For example a patient with multiple long-term conditions may be prescribed a new medicine for one condition and be supported in using this medicine by the NMS, but may benefit from the wider advice and support provided in an MUR in relation to medicines they use for another condition.

While it may not be possible to set out every instance where a patient may benefit from an MUR within six months of going through the NMS, an example could be a patient on multiple medicines who has not had an MUR in the previous twelve months.

Also see About MURs

Added 2nd December 2011