Jeremy Hunt
Omnicell's managing director for UK and Ireland Paul O’Hanlon has welcomed the announcement by health secretary Jeremy Hunt's that a new initiative will be introduced to tackle medication non-adherence.
A provider of adherence packaging solutions, Omnicell fully backs the initiative, which aims to improve medication adherence rates in the UK by ensuring that the cost of NHS medicines is displayed on packaging.
O’Hanlon said: "Here at Omnicell, we have been extremely concerned for many years about the scale of medication non-adherence, not just in the UK but as a wider global health issue and problem. It is estimated that a startling 50% of patients do not take their medication correctly, severely compromising the effectiveness of their treatment and contributing to waste costing the NHS millions of pounds every year.
"In the EU alone, nearly 200,000 deaths occur annually due to missed doses of medication. However, the real travesty is that much can be done to improve adherence rates by using adherence packaging solutions and innovative technology. It is now widely accepted within the healthcare community that medication adherence is key to delivering cost-efficiencies and, more importantly, better clinical outcomes. Let’s not forget that behind the statistics and news headlines, we are talking about patient lives and family tragedies that could be avoided.”