Oral nutritional supplements may be prescribed for the management of disease-related malnutrition, but there is a large variety of nutritionally differing products available. ONS prescribing in primary care is an area of uncertainty for GPs and prescribing of ONS on the NHS in England and Wales in 2018/2019 was over £150000000. Clinically appropriate prescribing of oral nutritional supplements is supported by the use of validated malnutrition screening tools to assess the patient's risk of malnutrition. Local prescribing formularies promote the use of cost-effective oral nutritional supplements products in primary care which are often not available for use in secondary care. A new medicines management model of practice which uses pharmacy technicians, with clinical support from a dietitian, to address inappropriate oral nutritional supplements prescribing in primary care is described here. The model maximises the skills within the medicines management team and promotes a food first, aging-well approach to managing malnutrition in primary care.
Primary care-based audit on the review of current and previous trends in oral nutritional supplement prescribing patterns on the Wirral
