Medicines are the most frequent therapeutic healthcare intervention in the NHS.

The aim is to optimise the use of medicines by promoting cost effective and evidence based clinical practice and effective risk management to ensure that patients get the right choice of medicine at the right time. We work to ensure our population get the most from their medicines, take medicines correctly, avoid taking unnecessary medicines, improve medicines safety, and reduce medicines wastage.

Effective medicines optimisation contributes towards:​

• Improved health of individuals and the population as a whole​
• Improved patient care and satisfaction​
• Reducing medication-related harm​
• Making best use of available resources​
• Making better use of professional skills​
• Delivering high quality, effective, safe healthcare​

Medicines A-Z:​

To find information on a medicine, the condition it treats, useful advice or potential side effects, visit the NHS Medicines A-Z web page on the nhs.uk website.