MI Services

Medicines Information (MI) centre

The function of the MI centre is to support the safe, effective, economical and rational use of medicines within our hospitals, with a strong emphasis on promoting quality patient care and ensuring patient safety. We can offer advice on any aspect of drug therapy. We will also provide evaluated information to help support evidence-based practice and give practical advice on choice of drug therapy. We promote the reporting of adverse drug reactions by healthcare professionals working within the hospital.

The MI Centre has access to a wide range of MI resources to help answer these enquires, including text and reference books,  access to online databases and journals, as well as a wealth of personal knowledge and experience of the staff.

The MI Centre is staffed by a team of specialist MI pharmacists who as well as their formal training to complete a Pharmacy Masters Degree at University, undertake an additional Clinical Pharmacy postgraduate qualification. They undergo a further specialist training programme which is governed by the UKMi national group to ensure they have the necessary skills to answer your questions about medicines. This team also supports training and skill development of junior pharmacy staff.

We answer MI enquiries from all the hospital services within the Trust. Healthcare professionals can contact us for advice about the patient they are caring for. For example, they may ask which treatment to use when standard options have failed, how to manage side effects, the correct dose for a child, or whether a medicine is appropriate for use in pregnancy. This service prevents errors and patient harm, and helps patients receive the best treatments.

We are part of the Medicines Management Team, who deal with the introduction of new medicines into the hospital, and provide direct support by providing impartial review of the evidence and advice.

Patient Pharmacy Medicines Information (MI) Helpline

Since 2009 we have also directly advertised our service to patients from our Trust. The role of the service is to answer enquiries and provide relevant information relating to medicines use for patients, including parents/guardians of younger patients, who have attended or are under the care of our Trust. The service can only provide information on medicines that have been prescribed by the Trust. Unfortunately we cannot provide information about medicines belonging to someone else, or about enquiries which do not relate to medicines e.g. about patient’s disease or condition, or other services such as wound care.

All UKMi centres are subject to regular external audit and operate according to nationally approved governance standards.