NHS policies to improve care for people taking multiple medicines may not be effective
Current NHS policies designed to improve care for people taking multiple medicines may not be effective, according to new research.
In England, more than one in seven people take five or more medicines daily, leading to growing concerns over the overuse of medicines – known as polypharmacy – because of potential side effects and patient harms.
The new study is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and led by the universities of Exeter and Bristol. Published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, it looked at how medication safety in general practice might be improved for people taking lots of medicines.
Drawing on current NHS policy recommendations, the researchers developed a process involving rigorous reviews of a person’s medicines by a pharmacist and GP, and compared this new method of care with the usual type of care carried out in GP practices.
They found that the enhanced process did not lead to improvements in safe prescribing for patients taking multiple medicines.
The findings suggest the need to reconsider NHS approaches to improving medication safety for people with complex prescriptions, with researchers calling for future policies to be revised to ensure efficient and effective use of resources.
Professor Rupert Payne of the University of Exeter, who led the project, said: “This is one of the largest studies of its kind. It adds strong evidence that the strategies being used by the NHS to improve medicines safety need to be reconsidered. We’ve also learned that there are ways we can improve the experience of patients and help GPs and pharmacists to work more effectively together. The NHS should look at how this might be made to happen in practice, as more of the same doesn’t seem to be working.”
Source: University of Exeter, 20 October 2025