Medicines Use Review
What is the Medicines Use Review Service?
The Medicines Use Review (MUR) is a structured review that is undertaken by a pharmacist to help patients to manage their medicines more effectively.
The pharmacist reviewing the patients’ USE of their medication, ensures the patient
- * understands how their medicines should be used
- * understands why they have to take them
- * identifies any problems
The pharmacist then provides feedback to the GP, as appropriate, via the NHS MUR
form. An MUR is not usually conducted more than once a year.
What does it involve?
The pharmacist conducting the review must be accredited.
Patients will need to check that their local pharmacist is able to conduct a MUR.
The review would usually be conducted in a consultation room and is therefore confidential.
As this is an adherence focused review, the patient should bring their medication including purchased over the counter medicines and supplements with them to the review.
An MUR is a way to:
- improve patients’ understanding of their medicines;
- highlight problematic side effects & propose solutions where appropriate;
- improve patients’ adherence to therapy; and
- reduce medicines wastage, usually by encouraging the patient to only order the medicines they require.
Discussions with the patient may include:
- what the patient thinks each medicine is for and when and how they take it;
- 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, i.e. 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 (the final decision lies with the patients’ GP); and
- proposals for dose or strength optimisation, provided it does not impact on the patients’ clinical management.
The review will be recorded on the NHS MUR form. A copy will be retained in the pharmacy, a copy given to the patient and a copy sent to the GP in certain circumstances (see above).
There may be action points for all parties dependent on the outcomes of the review, but the majority will be patient orientated.
It is very important that patients remember that the MUR focuses on the USE of medicines; it is not a clinical medication review.
An MUR is not:
- a full clinical review;
- an agreement about changes to medication;
- a discussion about the medical condition beyond that which is needed to achieve the above objectives; or
- a discussion on the effectiveness of treatment based on test results.
Not all pharmacists will be familiar with Fibromyalgia. Patients may find it beneficial to signpost their local pharmacist to this web site or to www.fibromyalgia-associationuk.org.
 
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