Outpatients at Walsall Manor Hospital now receive their prescriptions far quicker after Pharmacy waiting times more than halved.

Average waiting times for outpatient prescriptions have dropped 59 per cent, from 90 minutes to 37 minutes since October 2024, with a record turnaround of nine minutes.

This follows a staff reorganisation  and the separation of outpatients and inpatients workflows in the dispensaries at the Manor.

“The reduction in waiting times is a hugely positive step,” said Monique Sinclaire, Medicines Governance Advisor at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust.

“Following feedback, we changed at our processes, separating outpatients and inpatients dispensary because that was an issue.

“The moment staff moved away from these confined spaces of outpatient and inpatient flow, it worked better.”

There are now five – up from three – members of staff, comprising of dedicated Pharmacist, two Dispensers, one Accuracy Checker and a Pharmacy Receptionist.

This can include an extra staff member dispensing at the busiest clinic times, typically between 10am-4pm weekdays.

Razia Bibi, Medicines Management Team Leader, keeps an eye on the workflow and assigns extra support when necessary.

For inpatients, the Responsible Pharmacist concentrates on these medicine requests for the wards, but can also assist the Outpatient Pharmacy team if necessary.

A prescription tracking system tells staff – based on the number of patients waiting – how long everyone’s wait is, which is immediately relayed to the patients when they hand in their prescription for dispensing.

There is also a counselling room so patients can chat to Pharmacy staff in private for advice on how to use their medicines.

Nalini Patel, Pharmacy Operations Manager, has a retail background and is transferring her customer service skills. She said: “We’ve introduced minor but important changes for improvements.

“There’s a patient in our waiting room thinking of when their prescription is going to be ready so we engage with them from the beginning.

“This makes them less likely to complain because they’re kept fully informed throughout.

“The workforce has been re-organised so highly-skilled staff such as Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians are helping in dispensing prescriptions, which has really helped too.”

Feedback has been positive, as indicated by anonymous “mystery patients”.

One patient said they were happy, that it was a quick visit and that staff were pleasant and showed the patient how to administer their injections.

Monique added: “Big kudos to the team because we’re trying to work so hard to improve the patient experience.”

Regarding inpatients, more improvements took place following findings from a Royal Pharmaceutical Society self-assessment tool.

“We have increased staffing levels for the medicine and elderly care so there’s a much better skill mix of Pharmacists and Technicians for those wards,” added Monique.

“With those staff being more on the wards and more patient-focused, they’re now speaking to the patients more.”

Monique has created a poster and leaflet with QR codes after a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inpatient survey showed patients wanted to know more about their medicines.

“But we also have to think about digital health literacy, such as people who don’t have access to smart devices and to cater for those who don’t have English as their first language,” she added.