Prescribing Medicines Optimisation Service (PMOS)

Medicines are the most frequently utilised healthcare intervention in the NHS. The Prescribing and Medicines Optimisation (PMO) Service supports customers, including Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG), NHS England, acute trusts, local authorities and community health trusts, to ensure that medicines are commissioned and prescribed in a safe, legal, evidence based and cost effective way.

Medicines optimisation is concerned with maximising quality, outcomes and value for patients from the medicines that they take; it extends into all aspects of the pathway from the prescriber to the patient, to the pharmacy or dispensing practice and encompasses all of the health and social care professionals that may be involved in that patients care. The Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) is a statutory document that assesses the pharmacy needs of the local population.

This includes dispensing services as well as public health and other services that pharmacies may provide. The document is used as the framework for commissioning pharmacy services in a defined area. There is a statutory requirement for each local authority's Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWB) to produce a PNA every three years.