Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to end the use of blister packs in pharmacy.

There are no plans for the Department to recommend that pharmacies should stop preparing blister packs for their patients. The dispensing of medicines in the form of monitored dosage systems (MDSs), such as blister packs and dosette boxes, are part of broader compliance-support services. Under the Equality Act 2010, pharmacies must make reasonable adjustments to their services to help certain patients. Any adjustment must be considered ‘reasonable’, both for the pharmacy and the patient. MDSs are one of many adherence interventions and may be associated with their own risks which is underpinned by guidance issued by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

Patients requiring compliance-support services, should be assessed on a case-by-case basis for the right intervention for them. Patients can inform their pharmacy of their individual situation and discuss what adjustments might be reasonable in their circumstances, which may or may not be a blister pack or other form of compliance aid. There are pharmacy contractors that specialise in blister packs and offer blister packs to all patients in England that are on at least four medicines.