Supporting research on medicines waste

A mix of pills demonstrating medication

In 2016, NHS Bristol CCG published a report on medicines waste. Figures revealed at least £5 million is spent on unused medication every year in Bristol alone, and £300 million nationally. The report identified huge potential for improvements to patient care and use of NHS resources.

The Research Team saw the potential of collaborating with local academics to investigate possible solutions to this problem. We facilitated a meeting between the author of the CCG report and academics at the University of Bristol.

Our impact

We invested £18K in Dr Rupert Payne, from the University of Bristol, to undertake a short-term project to co-develop a research application to the NIHR. The application to the NIHR was successful, and the CCG was awarded £1.8 million in October 2017 to investigate optimising polypharmacy in primary care.

Optimising polypharmacy is the process a pharmacist or GP undertakes to consider a patient’s whole medication list, rather than treating each medication individually. They might reduce the number of drugs a patient is taking, or change their prescription list to increase their wellbeing. This helps to improve issues around medicines waste.

Read more impact case studies.