Medicine Use Review (MUR)

Medicine Use Review (MUR)

Page Contents
Overview
Frequently Asked Questions

The Medicine Use Review (MUR) is an advanced service within the NHS Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework. It is a free structured review undertaken by our pharmacists at P&S Chemist to help you manage your medications more effectively.

The MUR involves our pharmacist reviewing the way in which you use your medication, making sure that you understand how your medicines should be used, and why they have been prescribed to you. We can identify any problems with your medications that you have and then, where necessary, provide feedback to your doctor. An MUR feedback form will be provided to your GP if there is an issue for them to consider. An MUR is usually only conducted once a year unless it is necessary. 

At P&S Chemist, we do not just review your medication. Our team will also check your blood pressure, and weight and if you are diabetic, we will also do a glucose test for you. We will give you as much advice and visual information as is needed to ensure you understand what your medication is for and how best to use them. Sometimes a Prescription Intervention is necessary, This is simply an MUR that has been triggered by a particular problem that has come to light during the dispensing of your prescription and is always related to your health and safety. This is nothing to worry about and is a normal part of the pharmacist's dispensing service.

An MUR is a way to:

• Improve your understanding of your medicines.
• Highlight problems like side effects and propose a solution where we can.
• Improve how your medicines can be taken.
• Reduce medicine wastage, by encouraging you only to order the medicines that you require.

An MUR is not:

• A full clinical review of your medication.
• An agreement about changes to your medicines.
• A discussion about your medical condition.
• A discussion on the effectiveness of your treatment based on your test results.

Frequently Asked Questions
 

What does the MUR involve?

The pharmacist will normally ask the patient to bring their medication, including purchased medications, with them to the review. A set of suggested questions has been developed which can be used by pharmacists to guide the conversation with the patient; the use of the questions is not compulsory, but many pharmacists, including some of our own, may find them useful to obtain the maximum amount of information from the patient's perspective as is possible.
 

What may the discussions with the patient include?

• What the patient thinks each medicine is for and when and how it should be taken.
• How compliant they are with the prescriber's instructions.
• How and when they take medication labelled 'as required' or 'as directed'.
• Advice on tolerability and perceived side effects.
• Dealing with practical problems in ordering, obtaining, taking, and using medicines.
• Identification of unwanted medicines, for example, when a patient is no longer taking the medicine.
• Identification of a potential change of dosage form to facilitate effective use with due regard to formularies and cost implications, of which the final decision rests with the patient's doctor.
• Proposals for dose or strength optimisation, provided it does not impact the patient's clinical management.

How will the MUR be recorded?

All MUR's need to be recorded by the pharmacist within the national MUR dataset, but will generally keep additional clinical notes related to the MUR to support the continuing care of the patient. When there are issues with a patient's medication, the patient's GP will be informed via an MUR feedback form.
 

Who can have an MUR?

It is for the pharmacist to decide which patients receive this service, however, pharmacies must undertake at least 70% of their MUR's on patients that fall within the national target groups. These are as follows:
 

1. Patients taking high-risk medicines.
2. Patients who have been recently discharged from a hospital will receive an MUR within 4 weeks of discharge, but in certain circumstances, the MUR can take place within 8 weeks of discharge.
3. Patients with respiratory disease.
4. Patients at risk of or diagnosed with cardiovascular disease and regularly being prescribed at least 4 medicines.
    

MUR's must only be provided for patients who have been using P&S Chemist for the dispensing of their prescriptions for the previous 3 months, this does not, however, apply to prescription intervention MUR's.

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Page last reviewed: 04/10/2022
Next review date: 04/10/2024