A SCHEME to make sure patients get the best out of their medicines has been launched in Blackburn and Darwen.

It aims to ensure people take the right drugs in the right way to reduce waste and inefficiency -- it is estimated £500,000-worth of unwanted medicines are returned to pharmacies by patients for destruction in Blackburn and Darwen.

And it will look to make better use of the skills and knowledge of pharmacists who have a regular point of contact with health patients.

The scheme could also reduce the amount of people admitted to hospital after taking medicines wrongly or not at all.

Blackburn with Darwen Primary Care Trust has been awarded £75,000 from the national Medicines Management Services Collaborative (MMSC) to support the initiative.

At first, six GP practices in the area will take part in the scheme, but it will be spread out to others across the borough over the next two years.

Teams from the PCT and pilot practices will attend a series of workshops and use what they have learned to address how medicines are managed locally.

New initiatives will include reviewing patients' medication more often, especially when being discharged from hospital, and improving repeat prescribing systems.

The trust's pharmaceutical adviser Sharuna Reddy, said: "We are delighted our bid has been successful. This is a real opportunity to make a difference and improve the quality of prescribing in Blackburn with Darwen.

"Improved medicines management can improve the health of individuals as well as reduce inefficiencies in current systems.

"A significant body of evidence shows that medicines are not used as well as they could be or they are used in a way that means they become potentially harmful to patients.

"For example, 17 per cent of hospital admissions in older people are due to medicines-related problems. Fifty per cent of people do not take their medicines that would benefit them as intended, or they are not given an opportunity for meaningful involvement in decisions about their medicines.

"We have estimated that £500,000-worth of unwanted medicines are returned to pharmacies by patients for destruction. Through this programme we can look at improving the way we use medicines, in particular, looking at patients' needs."