Performance & Governance

The Pharmacy Performance Quality & Safety (PQS) team oversee all medicines related governance issues supporting front line clinical teams and corporate governance departments. The team has a specific responsibility for:  

Medicines Governance:

• A prescribed medicine is the most frequent treatment provided for patients in the Trust; inevitably there are potential risks associated with the use of these medicines.
• There are a wide range of factors which influence how patients can access medicines. These factors range from legal frameworks and standards, through to preferences of prescribers and patients.

The PQS team support the wider healthcare team to identify and minimise potential areas of risk associated with the use of medicines and facilitate the development of appropriate policies and protocols by the wider healthcare team to support the safe prescribing, supply and administration of medicines by Trust staff.

Safe and Secure Handling of Medicines:

• Within CDDFT there are over 200 acute and community sites, wards and clinics that hold or use medicines.

The PQS team support the wider healthcare team to ensure these medicines are stored safely and securely.

Medication Incident Management:

• Every day, about two and a half million medicines are prescribed in the community and in hospitals across the UK. Most medicines are used safely and help people to get better or stay well. However sometimes there can be a breakdown in the processes associated with the prescribing, dispensing, preparing, administering or monitoring of a medicine; these instances rarely lead to any harm to the patient but there is still important learning to be gained.

The PQS team review all medication incident reports and identify areas to support learning across the wider healthcare team.