Discharge Medicines Service (DMS)

DMS is an Essential Service, as part of your Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) from 15th February 2021. Therefore, all pharmacy contractors must offer this service.

NHS Trusts refer patients to their Community Pharmacy upon discharge for support with newly prescribed medicines, contributing to patient safety by reducing hospital admissions, as identified by NHS England and NHS Improvement’s (NHSE&I) Medicines Safety Improvement Programme. Further information on the service is outlined in the letter to pharmacies and pharmacy staff:

DMS-Community-Pharmacy-Letter

DMS-Letter-to-Community-Pharmacy-Teams

Referrals will come to the Pharmacy via NHSMail. Therefore, it is crucial your pharmacy staff have access and regularly check your pharmacy’s NHS Mailbox to ensure referrals are picked up and actioned in a timely manner.

Pharmacies must, at a minimum, read through the DMS section within the NHSE&I guidance on regulations (Section 8) and DMS toolkit and inform the relevant staff.

In addition, contractors must have a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the service which includes a process for checking regularly for referrals, as mentioned above. NPA have produced a template SOP for their members.

Further resource and materials are available below to support you with this service, which the LPC recommends you read through in full and refer back to as required.

Contractors are reminded they must complete and submit their DMS claims on PharmOutcomes in order to receive payment.

Staff Training and Guidance

It is recommended that pharmacy staff complete the available CPPE course for DMS and familiarise themselves with the PSNC guidance.

CPPE training is available for Pharmacists, Pharmacy technicians, Pre-registration trainees and CPPE registrants here. Once pharmacists and technicians have completed, they should complete a declaration of competence, providing evidence of completion to the contractor.

PSNC have also developed a DMS briefing for Pharmacy Teams.

DMS Pathway

Click the icon to open the pathway in a new tab.

Contractors are reminded they must complete and submit their DMS claims on PharmOutcomes in order to receive payment.

FAQs

PSNC have produced a DMS FAQ page for Contractors on the PSNC website. If you have any queries or concerns, please check this page in the first instance for support.

If you have any further DMS queries, please contact us.

Discharge Medicines Service (DMS)

Staff Training and Guidance

DMS Pathway

FAQs

Overview of available Materials and useful links