Patients and their Medicines: FAQs 

Both Doncaster Royal Infirmary and Bassetlaw Hospital have dispensaries from which medicines are supplied to in-patient areas of the Trust.  We also provide services to a variety of external organisations.

Dispensing Services
There are two dispensaries, one at Doncaster Royal Infirmary and one at Bassetlaw Hospital.

In 2012, the pharmacy departments at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals were extensively modernised and equipped with the latest high-tech automated ‘robots’ playing a key role in the dispensing and storage of pharmacy medicines.

The new V-Max robots have already made their mark and have sped up the dispensing service for patients on the wards at both hospitals. On average, medicines prescribed for inpatients are now dispensed and delivered to the wards in half the time it previously took.

At DRI, out-patient dispensing is done by Doncaster and Bassetlaw Healthcare Services Ltd, based near A&E. Their opening hours are 9am – 6pm (Mon – Fri) and 9am – 1pm (Sat), closed Sundays and Bank Holidays. They can be contacted on the following telephone number: 01302 644763.

Advice
Pharmacy staff, trained in patient counselling skills, can provide patients with any information or advice they need about medicines they are taking home. They will explain what the medicines are for, how much to take and how often, possible side effects to expect and how to obtain further supplies.

Rivaroxaban Counselling Video (for DVT & PE)

A patient information leaflet should be provided with nearly all dispensed products.

We also offer a medicines helpline which patients can use to ask questions about their medicines they have been given after they have left hospital.

This helpline is open between 2 -4pm Monday – Friday.

Tel: 01302 644324

Clinical Pharmacy
Our team of pharmacists are made up of consultant pharmacists, specialist pharmacists, rotational and on-call pharmacists. The clinical pharmacy teams include pharmacy technician practitioners, senior pharmacy technicians and pharmacy assistants who all help to provide pharmacy services to the wards.

Our pharmacists are based on the wards where they work closely with doctors, nurses and other allied healthcare professionals to ensure optimal care for each patient.

We have being using electronic prescribing for many years and now our pharmacy staff can order drugs and process discharge prescriptions via ipads whilst on the wards.

We also provide training for pre-registration pharmacists in their training year at both Doncaster & Bassetlaw Hospital.

Financial Management
We provide financial management information on drug usage and trends to guide service development and clinical care groups.

Formulary
Formulary maintenance and development which includes prescribing guidelines and protocols. We also support Drug & Therapeutics Committee in terms of Formulary, Clinical Guideline development and drug usage review

Procurement
We have a dedicated team of procurement staff ensuring we purchase the most cost effective medicines available.

Specialised dispensing
The Chatsfield Suite at Doncaster Royal Infirmary is home to the aseptic dispensing team.  Here they make up individualised doses of chemotherapy and other high risk medicines that need to be made in a sterile environment.

At Bassetlaw Hospital, they compound intravenous nutrition for adults and neonates across the Trust who may require extra support.  This is also done in a sterile room where the staff are required to wear protective clothing.

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