Polypharmacy

From 2022 to 2025, the Health Innovation Network’s national Polypharmacy Programme supported the development of multi-stakeholder communities of practice across England, focusing on problematic polypharmacy at a local level.

In England, the NHS primary care system dispenses over 1 billion prescription items every year. As more people live longer with multiple long-term health conditions, the number of medicines they take often increases. This can create a significant burden for the person trying to manage multiple medicine regimes, and sometimes it can cause harm.

Problematic polypharmacy adds a cost to the healthcare system and diminishes quality care for the patient, and most of this is entirely preventable.

We have collated the key programme resources here in one toolkit; please contact us at medicines.optimisation@hiwessex.net if you would like any additional information about the work delivered from Wessex into national NHS adoption.