In July 2021 Rachael Fallon, Chief Pharmacist at North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NWAS), set up the Ambulance Service Medicines Safety Officers Group, a subgroup of the Ambulance Pharmacists Network within in the AACE structure.
On 18th May they held their first face to face meeting, kindly hosted by Gavin Mooney, Medicines Safety Officer at London Ambulance Service NHS Trust (LAS). The meeting was comprehensively represented with attendees from LAS, EMAS, SCAS, SECAMB, YAS, NEAS, WAST, SAS, NIAS, NWAS and SWAST – and also included a PhD student who is researching medicines safety in the ambulance service, as part of the discussions.
As well as having their meeting, the Group took the opportunity to tour the new Medicines Packing Facility at LAS and meet the Medicines Team there. They had some positive discussions about how they can work together to support improvements in medicines safety for the ambulance service – including how they can support the forthcoming World Patient Safety Day (part of the WHO Patient Safety Plan), and link in with research and education teams, as well as universities.
The Medicines Safety Officer role is part of a national network in England and posts are registered with the Care Quality Commission. We are keen to promote this role across the ambulance service and would be grateful if you can share this with your networks.
For further information, please contact rachael.fallon@nwas.nhs.uk
