Patient preferences for the provision of NHS medicines helpline services

Four of every ten patients who go home from hospital have a problem with their medicines. Medicines helplines let these patients telephone a pharmacist for help, which keeps them safe. However, most patients who need to use a helpline don’t call.

This project will find out what changes to the way helplines are run will make patients more likely to call. For example, would they prefer longer opening hours or a faster answer? We will analyse answers to a survey using mathematics to find out what patients value most.

These results will allow the NHS to improve the design of medicines helplines to help more people.