Quality Use of Medicine
The Quality Use of Medicines (QUM) program is a primary objective of The National Medicines Policy.
The National Strategy for QUM addresses challenges and barriers to realising all the benefits of quality use of medicines to improve health outcomes for all Australians.
Quality Use of Medcines means:
- Selecting management options wisely by considering the place of medicines in treating illness and maintaining health and recognising that there may be other options than medicine to manage many disorders.
- Choosing suitable medicines while taking into account, among other things, the individual, clinical condition, risks and benefits, dosage and length of treatment, and coexisting conditions
- Using medicines safely and effectively by monitoring outcomes, minimising misuse, over-use and under-use, and by improving people's ability to solve medication related problems, such as negative effects and managing polypharmacy.
The Moreton Bay General Practice Network offers two Quality Use of Medicines programs:
National Prescribing Service (NPS) which assists general practitioners to stay up to date on medicines by providing accurate, unbiased, evidenced based information. The NPS is a not-for-profit organisation funded by the Australian Government. It receives no funding from pharmaceutical companies. Their website has extensive information for both the public and for health providers.
The Moreton Bay General Practice Network employs a NPS facilitator who can visit practices and pharmacies to conduct individual training, small group study meetings, and clinical audits. To organise a practice visit please contact our facilitator or call the MBGPN office on (07) 3284 5155.
The current educational topic is Treating the Symptoms of Dementia. Some resources are downloadable from our resources website
Home Medicines Review (HMR) assists general practitioners to improve quality of life and health outcomes for patients by collaborating with pharmacists to review patients' medications.
Here are links to the Pharmacy Guild of Australia's website and the Department of Health and Ageing's Questions and Answers page
Here is a link to the Moreton Bay General Practice Network's Home Medication Review Fact Sheet
Here is the referral form for a GP to request a Home Medication review
Here is the Pharmacy Guild's database of Approved Pharmacies for HMR. Select Redcliffe/Bribie/Caboolture in the "Division" drop down box or your suburb in the "Suburb" drop down box.
