What we do
Our team are here to help people make the best use of their medicines.
Supporting you during your hospital stay
On admission our pharmacy team will check your medicines to ensure everything you were taking before your admission are prescribed on the inpatient chart, unless it has been decided to stop or change the prescription.
Pharmacy staff will discuss your medication history and if you are experiencing any difficulties with your medication such as side effects. Medicines that you bring into hospital with you are used during your stay.
This enables a more accurate drug history to be taken, ensures continuity of supply, allowing many patients to self-medicate with medicines they are familiar with and facilitates a faster discharge process.
New treatment is supplied labelled for use while in hospital and when you go home. Pharmacy ward staff will also provide counselling to patients started on any new medication to help you make the best use of your medication.
This speeds up the discharge process resulting in a better patient experience. With all your regular medicines stored in your bedside locker there is no need to dispense new medicines to take home, unless treatment is changed just before discharge.
Supporting clinicians
Pharmacists support clinicians by reviewing prescribing to maximise the benefits and reduce the risk of harm from medicines use. Our specialist pharmacists provide expert advice on the prescribing and preparation of chemotherapy, parenteral nutrition and paediatric intravenous additives. These products are supplied ready to use by clinical staff having been prepared in our aseptic units or purchased as a special product.
Pharmacy staff ensure that medicines are supplied, distributed, stored and, if necessary, disposed of, in a legal, safe and timely way. Medicines are selected, purchased and distributed from the central pharmacy store at Scunthorpe General Hospital, ensuring local prescribing policies are adhered to, and that the best price is obtained by using national, regional or locally negotiated contracts.
Prescribing of over the counter medicines is changing
For minor health concerns we will not generally give you a prescription for medicines that are available to buy in a pharmacy or supermarket, even if you qualify for free prescriptions.
The NHS has been spending around £136 million a year on such prescriptions. By reducing the amount the NHS spends on over the counter medicines, we can give priority to treatments for people with more serious conditions, such as cancer, diabetes and mental health problems.
Whether you have been with us as an inpatient staying in hospital, or you have attended one of our emergency departments, when it’s time to go home we may advise you to purchase over the counter medicines, such as paracetamol, yourself, rather than prescribe them. Please note this does not apply to children’s syrups. There will be some cases where patients are prescribed over the counter medicines, including those with long term conditions and more complex minor conditions. Our clinicians will use their judgment in prescribing over the counter medicines.
Contact us
Scunthorpe pharmacy team: 03033 302127
Grimsby pharmacy team: 03033 304498
Service improvements
New dispensing robot
Meet QUEST – the latest recruit to our pharmacy team – helping us get medication to our patients as quickly and efficiently as possible. The new state-of-the-art robot is the first of his kind in the UK and has been named by the team.
Quest comes complete with an advanced software platform to enable future proofing capabilities for the next 10 years. It has innovative picking head technology which allows up to 13 packages to be picked at the same time and can process up to 500 packs per hour. It also has the latest laser scanner technology to read 2D barcodes, and an automated stock loader which can fill the robot at a rate of 200 packs per hour.
Electronic prescribing
Electronic prescribing and medicines administration is live across all inpatient wards. The system allows doctors to prescribe from anywhere in the hospital. They can use the system to check appropriate doses and to cross check for allergies as well as drug interactions while they are prescribing. Nurses can see clearly what drug and dose has been prescribed and they can look up information on drugs at their fingertips rather than referring to the paper copy of the formulary. There’s also a clear record of who has administered what and when and the system vastly reduces the chance of medication errors.
Rowlands and Allied Pharmacy
We work in partnership with Rowlands pharmacy, who dispense prescriptions from outpatient clinics, allowing a more familiar ‘community feel’ for patients. We have an onsite Rowlands pharmacy at Scunthorpe and Grimsby hospitals open Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm. In addition, Rowlands pharmacy are supported by Allied pharmacy at Goole hospital, which are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm and Saturday 9am to 1pm.
Scunthorpe hospital Rowlands branch: 01724 281139
Grimsby hospital Rowlands branch: 01472 877200
Goole hospital Allied branch: 01405 763074