Plain-English explanations of the technical terms and legislation used in this document.
- Adherence
- Whether a patient takes their medicine in the way it was prescribed, at the right dose and times.
- Anticoagulant
- A medicine that thins the blood to reduce the risk of dangerous clots, needing careful monitoring.
- Authorising prescriber
- The doctor or other qualified prescriber who takes clinical responsibility for a medicine and signs the prescription.
- Care Quality Commission (CQC)
- The independent regulator of health and social care services in England.
- Clinical pharmacist
- A pharmacist working within the practice who reviews medicines and, if qualified as a prescriber, can authorise them.
- Contraindication
- A reason why a particular medicine should not be given to a patient because it could cause harm.
- Controlled drug (CD)
- A medicine whose supply, storage and records are tightly restricted by law because of its potential for misuse.
- Data Protection Act 2018
- The UK law setting the rules for how personal information, including health records, must be handled.
- Deprescribing
- The planned reduction or stopping of a medicine that is no longer needed or whose risks outweigh its benefits.
- Disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD)
- A medicine used to slow conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, requiring regular monitoring for side effects.
- Electronic Prescription Service (EPS)
- The national service that sends prescriptions electronically from the practice to a chosen dispenser.
- General Medical Council (GMC)
- The body that registers doctors in the UK and sets the standards they must follow.
- Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014
- The regulations setting the fundamental standards that providers of regulated care must meet.
- Human Medicines Regulations 2012
- The main UK law governing how medicines are prescribed, supplied and dispensed.
- Indication
- The medical reason for which a particular medicine is prescribed.
- Medicines optimisation
- Helping patients get the best outcomes from their medicines while reducing waste and avoidable harm.
- Misuse of Drugs Act 1971
- The UK law that controls dangerous or harmful drugs and classifies them by their risk.
- Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001
- The regulations setting out how controlled drugs may lawfully be prescribed, stored and recorded.
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
- The national body that produces evidence-based guidance on treatments and care.
- Near miss
- An event that could have caused harm but did not, by chance or because it was caught in time.
- NICE guideline NG5
- National guidance on medicines optimisation, including how to carry out a structured medication review.
- Non-medical prescriber
- A nurse, pharmacist or other trained professional, who is not a doctor, qualified to prescribe medicines.
- Opioid
- A strong painkilling medicine, such as morphine or codeine, that carries a risk of dependence and harm.
- Polypharmacy
- The use of several medicines at once; 'problematic polypharmacy' is where the mix is not well balanced or safe.
- Prescription-only medicine (POM)
- A medicine that may lawfully be supplied only on the instruction of an appropriate prescriber.
- Records Management Code of Practice
- National guidance on how long health and care records should be kept and how they should be managed.
- Regulated activity
- A type of care or treatment the law requires a provider to register with the regulator to deliver.
- Regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment)
- The rule requiring care and treatment to be provided in a safe way, including the safe handling of medicines.
- Regulation 17 (Good governance)
- The rule requiring providers to have effective systems to monitor and improve the quality and safety of care.
- Repeat dispensing
- An arrangement where a prescriber signs a batch of repeatable prescriptions that a pharmacy dispenses at set intervals.
- Repeat prescription
- A prescription authorised in advance so a medicine can be issued on request without seeing the prescriber each time.
- Shared care
- An arrangement where a specialist and the practice share responsibility for prescribing and monitoring a medicine.
- Shared decision-making
- Working together with the patient to choose treatment based on the evidence and the patient's own preferences.
- Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
- A written set of step-by-step instructions describing how a task should be carried out consistently and safely.
- Structured medication review (SMR)
- A thorough, patient-centred review of all a patient's medicines, focused on safety, benefit and the patient's wishes.
- Synchronisation
- Adjusting medicine quantities so that a patient's regular medicines run out at the same time and can be ordered together.
- UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)
- The UK's main data-protection law governing how personal information is collected and used.