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Sheffield Teaching Hospitals team up with Boots UK to offer new outpatients pharmacy services

Patients at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals will be able to benefit from a more convenient prescription service thanks to a new partnership with Boots UK.

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has joined forces with Boots UK to change the way they dispense prescriptions to people attending the Royal Hallamshire Hospital for an outpatient appointment.

Under the new scheme, Boots UK will open a new pharmacy at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital which will offer patients a more flexible service including new options such as collection from their local Boots pharmacy. For those patients who decide to collect their prescription from the new pharmacy at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, they should not only see waiting times reduced but now also have access to a range of Boots retail products.

Damian Child, Chief Pharmacist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust explained: "We have highly skilled NHS pharmacists working in our hospitals and this new service enables more of them to concentrate their efforts on ensuring the sickest patients who are in hospital get the necessary medication as quickly as possible. It will also mean that when patients are ready to be discharged that they are not waiting longer than necessary for the drugs they need to take home with them because we will have more of our pharmacy team available to dispense the drugs and offer specialist advice.”

The new partnership with Boots UK also has benefits for patients who need medication after an outpatient consultation because for some patients they will be able to have it delivered to home or collect their medication from a local Boots pharmacy. The new service is likely to save the NHS locally around £1 million without any loss of staff or service. The new service aims to dispense outpatient medications within 15 minutes of receiving the prescription.

Peter Bainbridge, Director of Pharmacy at Boots added: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to offer the best possible pharmacy service and also bring a great retail offer to the staff, patients and visitors of Royal Hallamshire Hospital. At Boots UK, we are continuously seeking opportunities to provide better healthcare solutions and this new partnership not only ensures we are located where customers want and need us most but allows us to work together to provide great patient care.”

Alan French, a patient representative who has been involved in the development of the new service said: "The Trust felt it was very important to have a patient representative involved during discussions about how this new service could bring improvements for patients and to use previous patient feedback to inform the service development. This has been reflected in the added benefits of the new service such as reduced waiting times for prescription collections and the option for some patients to collect their prescription from a local Boots pharmacy instead of having to wait at the hospital.”

The new pharmacy will be open towards the end of 2012 on C floor at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield.

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About Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals is one of the UK’s largest NHS Foundation Trusts and one of the largest and busiest teaching hospitals.

Over a million patients are cared for each year at our five hospitals and in the local community:
• The Royal Hallamshire Hospital
• The Northern General Hospital
• Charles Clifford Dental Hospital
• Weston Park Cancer Hospital
• Jessop Wing Maternity Hospital

We offer a full range of local hospital services for people in Sheffield as well as specialist services to patients from further afield. The Trust is recognised internationally for its work in neurosciences, spinal injuries, cancer, transplantation, neurosciences and orthopaedics. We are one of only a handful of hospital Trusts to have been awarded the highest rating of 'excellent' for both the quality of our services and our financial management, three years running. We are proud to be one of the top 20% of NHS Trusts for patient satisfaction. The Trust has been awarded the title of ‘Hospital Trust of the Year’ in the Good Hospital Guide three times in five years and is a recognised leader in medical research for bone, cardiac, neurosciences and long term conditions such as diabetes and lung disease.

For further information please contact: James Coxon, Communications Specialist, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on 0114 268989 or email james.coxon@sth.nhs.uk

About Boots UK

Boots UK is a member of Alliance Boots, a leading international, pharmacy-led health and beauty group delivering a range of products and services to customers. Working in close partnership with manufacturers and pharmacists, Alliance Boots is committed to improving health in the local communities it serves and helping its customers and patients to look and feel their best.

For further information please contact:
Kristy McCready, External Communications, Boots UK
kristy.mccready@boots.co.uk
Tel: 0115 949 4085