Moving Safely from Hospital to Home – Developing a Primary Care Medicines Discharge Service
On the 12th June 2025, representatives from SGPA’s GP and Pharmacy teams attended and delivered a session at Confed Expo, where they presented on the topic: “Moving Safely from Hospital to Home – Developing a Primary Care Medicines Discharge Service.”
During the session, the panel highlighted the evolution of the Primary Care Network (PCN) pharmacy team in Sunderland and the Medicines Discharge Hub Service. The presentation explored how an initial concept was transformed into a successful, fully operational model. This innovative approach, across Sunderland PCNs, has had a positive impact on patient safety, efficiency and workload for GP practice teams.
Attendees heard examples of good clinical practice and patient case studies that demonstrated gold standard care. The team also took the opportunity to share details of other key pharmacy-led services currently being piloted, including the Clinic Letter Service and the Out-of-Stock Medicines Service, both of which are in progress within Coalfields PCN.
This was a valuable opportunity to showcase the positive impact of collaborative working within primary care, and to learn from other pioneering initiatives across the country.
