Otc Medicines Independent Report Prepared by Standout Media Limited for South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Ics
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OTC MEDICINES INDEPENDENT REPORT PREPARED BY STANDOUT MEDIA LIMITED FOR SOUTH YORKSHIRE AND BASSETLAW ICS DECEMBER 2018 2 OTC MEDICINES INDEPENDENT REPORT Contents Introduction and purpose 3 About the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw area and its population 4 Who was involved? 5 About the insight and engagement campaign 6 Who were our target audiences? 7 Methodology 7 Toolkits 9 About the people who engaged with us 11 Patient and public survey 14 What did the patients and public tell us? 16 Staff engagement 19 Community engagement 21 Social media 22 Website statistics 24 How our insight campaign compares 26 What we propose – next steps 27 Awards 29 Appendices Appendix 1 – SYB ICS partner organisations 30 Appendix 2 – Rotherham CCG Start Well, Choose Well, Stay Well campaign assets 32 Appendix 3 – SYB ICS Citizens’ Panel 33 Appendix 4 – Patient and public survey results in graphs 34 Appendix 5 – Prescriber survey results in graphs 41 Appendix 6 – Doncaster prescriber survey results 45 Appendix 7 – Barnsley consultation report 67 Appendix 8 – GP practices by CCG area 89 Appendix 9 – Community pharmacies by CCG area 95 Appendix 10 – Parish councils by CCG area 105 Appendix 11 – Libraries by CCG area 107 Appendix 12 – Community centres by CCG area 109 Appendix 13 – ONS data by CCG area 112 Appendix 14 – MPs by CCG area 117 Appendix 15 – Comms toolkit 118 3 OTC MEDICINES INDEPENDENT REPORT Introduction and purpose In early 2018 NHS England carried out a public consultation on reducing prescribing of over the counter (OTC) medicines for minor, short-term health concerns which could save the NHS high costs and encourage more people to self-care. The NHS is taking this action to make the policy clear and fair across the country – no postcode lottery for over the counter medications. • Medicines optimisation is a ‘person-centred approach to safe and effective medicines use to ensure people obtain the best possible outcomes from their medicines’. • There are number of elements to medicines optimisation. Our campaign focuses on over the counter medicines. Over the counter medicines • In the year prior to June 2017, the NHS spent approximately £569million on prescriptions for medicines which can be purchased over the counter from a pharmacy and other outlets such as supermarkets. • These prescriptions include items for a condition: • that is considered to be self-limiting and so does not need treatment as it will heal of its own accord; • which lends itself to self-care, i.e. that the person suffering does not normally need to seek medical care but may decide to seek help with symptom relief from a local pharmacy and use an over the counter medicine. • Vitamins/minerals and probiotics have also been included in the consultation proposals as items of limited clinical effectiveness which are of high cost to the NHS. • Patient activation describes the knowledge, skills and confidence a person has in managing their own health and care. Evidence shows that when people are supported to become more activated, they benefit from better health outcomes, improved experiences of care and fewer unplanned care admissions. Standout Media partnered with the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Integrated Care System (SYB ICS) to create and deliver a public engagement campaign designed to gather high-quality insights about public attitudes to the withdrawal from prescription of common medications that are available over the counter. Working with teams from Clinical Commissioning Groups and their GP practices, Standout Media ensured that insight was collected from the widest demographic, including the digitally excluded and easily-overlooked sectors of the population. The campaign integrated print, digital and GP practice telephone platforms. © Standout Media Limited 2018 STANDOUTMEDIA 4 OTC MEDICINES INDEPENDENT REPORT About the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw area and its population The South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw area has a population of nearly 1.5million people, covering the four boroughs in South Yorkshire – Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield – and the northernmost borough of Nottinghamshire, Bassetlaw. More than a third of this population lives within the Sheffield area and roughly half of the population lives in Doncaster, Rotherham and Bassetlaw. With an extensive industrial heritage, the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw towns and city are a mix of urban and rural settings. Each of the five places within SYB has relatively high levels of deprivation compared with the rest of the country, with Barnsley and Doncaster in the top 15% of most deprived local authorities nationally. SYB also compares poorly with the rest of the country on a range of health measures such as preventable mortality rates, smoking and obesity, and adult mental illness. Each area has its own demographics and challenges within practices and also its own targets to address as part of this initiative. © Standout Media Limited 2018 STANDOUTMEDIA 5 OTC MEDICINES INDEPENDENT REPORT Who was involved? SYB ICS is a partnership of 23 organisations, 18 NHS organisations, six local authorities and key voluntary sector and independent partners in the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw region – covering Bassetlaw, Doncaster, Sheffield, Barnsley and Rotherham. See appendix 1 for full list of partners. The ICS builds on a history of joint working across South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw. This includes the Working Together programme – an acute care collaboration which became a vanguard in 2015 – and the Commissioners Working Together collaboration. The establishment of the sustainability and transformation partnership (STP) was seen as a key step in closer working and joint planning between the organisations, and formed the basis for the ICS. The campaign also collaborated closely with patient groups, community pharmacies, the voluntary sector and other local groups. © Standout Media Limited 2018 STANDOUTMEDIA 6 About the insight and engagement campaign Big numbers are powerful and facilitate the creation of imaginative, compelling outputs that can be used with both staff and the public to drive engagement with the conversation and the concept. £569million is a big number that has been used nationally by NHS England to support their own messaging. A suite of assets with the 569 Million Reasons branding was prepared in support of the research process. These were used in combination with existing assets from Rotherham CCG to support our conversations. See appendix 2 for examples of the Rotherham CCG assets. Secondary message lines under the overarching campaign heading of “569 Million Reasons” included “Please don’t ask” and “Don’t delay your treatment”. The campaign message suite was framed using three approaches based on how people receive information. These are: • Direct message about prospective changes • What’s in it for me? • Individual responsibility We believe this to be clear and clearly differentiated from the longer running, Rotherham specific, “Start Well, Choose Well, Stay Well” campaign, making its impact easier to measure and allowing it to be withdrawn at the end point without impacting on any other campaigns. We created a web platform www.569millionreasons.co.ukas the central touchpoint for individuals to engage with the campaign and access the survey digitally to test the messaging and to view self-care/help educational resources. Our analytics provided clear insight into the route of access e.g. practice website, CCG website, text link, direct, Google and more to support evaluation of the campaign. © Standout Media Limited 2018 STANDOUTMEDIA 7 OTC MEDICINES INDEPENDENT REPORT Who were our target audiences? • people who are entitled to free prescriptions • patient groups including children and their parents/care givers • people over 60 • people with long term conditions • frequent users of health and care services, especially people with long term conditions (LTC) who want to take a more active role in their self-management or where professionals want to encourage more active partnership between themselves and users of the NHS and social care • GP/ANPs in practices to support them in realising the benefits – ‘what’s in it for me?’ - fewer consultations with people who should be self-caring. Methodology We worked with leaders in the healthcare commissioning community to develop a campaign that would have legitimacy across the five distinct populations of Sheffield, Doncaster, Barnsley, Bassetlaw and Rotherham. We held events for commissioners, GPs, practice staff and pharmacists and provided information packs about the issues and how to deal with objections. We ensured that key groups receiving over the counter medicines on prescription were aware of the campaign. We worked with the citizens’ panel to get their input into the design of the survey that was at the heart of the campaign. See appendix 3 for information about the Citizens Panel. We included NHS statistics in our materials to communicate the benefits of the potential cost savings, gaining support for the campaign from stakeholders. The campaign was carefully budgeted, and the elements were designed for maximum impact. The fully integrated campaign comprised: • face to face engagement with SY&B ICS and CCGs throughout the campaign and regular phone/ email contact and introductory sessions for CCGs • face to face staff onboarding workshops held at CCGs with supporting materials and identification of champions with practices • briefing packs • use of existing networks, including those already established by the Be Cancer Safe campaign and