The NHS Chronic Medication Service – For people with a long-term condition
The Chronic Medication Service is an NHS service for patients with a long-term condition to help patients get the best results from their medicines.
It lets people with a long-term condition get personalised care and advice about their medicines from their pharmacist alongside the medical care they get from their doctor. A long-term condition is a health problem, like high blood pressure, that is likely to last longer than a year, and needs ongoing medical care.
The Chronic Medication Service helps patients, doctors and pharmacists work more closely together to improve patient care. It also allows some people to get the medicines they use regularly on a serial prescription which their pharmacy will hold for them.
Registration with a pharmacy
If you decide to register for the Chronic Medication Service, you will need to choose a pharmacy where you would like to do this.
You can register at any time – you don’t need to make an appointment.
When you register for the service, your pharmacist will ask you for some details, including your name, address and date of birth.
Your doctor’s surgery will be told by your pharmacist that you have registered at their pharmacy for this service.
You can cancel your registration at any time by asking to withdraw.
Assessment of your use of medicines and development of a CMS care plan
Once you have registered for the service, your pharmacist will ask you about the medicines you are using to treat your condition and any problems you may be having with them. They will then work with you to decide if a personal CMS care plan would help you with your medicines.
You can register for the Chronic Medication Service if you are registered with a doctor’s surgery in Scotland, and you get regular prescriptions to treat a long-term condition.
A care plan may include:
o details of any problems you are having with your medicines, and
o ways of solving these problems.
Your pharmacist will work on your care plan in partnership with you. They may share information from the care plan with your doctor’s surgery.
Care plans are recorded electronically. Your pharmacist will print a paper copy for you to keep.
Your pharmacist will check your care plan regularly with you to make sure it is helping with any problems you were having with your medicines.
You can still make an appointment to see a doctor from your surgery whenever you like.
For more information about care plans please talk to your pharmacist.
Serial prescriptions
After you have registered for the service your doctor can decide whether the medicines you take are suitable for a serial prescription.
A serial prescription looks like a normal prescription but lasts for either 24 or 48 weeks. It lets you pick up items directly from the pharmacy where you are registered at agreed time intervals.
Your doctor decides how often you can pick up the items on your serial prescription from your pharmacy, for example every four or eight weeks.
You won’t need to visit your doctor’s surgery to order or pick up your prescription during this period.
Not everyone who registers for the Chronic Medication Service can get a serial prescription. You do not need a serial prescription to benefit from the other parts of the service, such as the care plan.
How to find out more
For more information about CMS, contact your pharmacist.
Nov 2015; Adapted from Chronic Medication Service factsheet (May 2010)