Providing advice and support on the safe and appropriate use of medicines.
Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust’s pharmacy service advises on and supports the safe and appropriate use of medicines within the trust.
We do this by providing:
- Accurate, independent information and education about medicines to service users and carers
- Information and education for trust staff and other professionals
- Clinical activities to help ensure the optimum use of medicines
- Medicines optimisation to ensure the most cost-effective use is made of resources
Dispensaries
We have three locality dispensaries (based in York, Middlesbrough and Darlington), which supply and dispense medication for inpatients. Opening hours are Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. One of the dispensaries (on rotation) is also open on a weekend to provide urgently required medication for in-patient services.
Medication information
You can contact the pharmacy team via email [email protected]
Policies and procedures
Many of the medicines related policies, procedures and guidelines are available on our website at https://www.tewv.nhs.uk/about/publications/
Choice and Medication website
The trust’s Choice and Medication website (www.choiceandmedication.org/tees-esk-and-wear-valleys) offers information mental health conditions, treatments and medications. This information is designed to help people make informed decisions about the medicines they need. Patients can use this site on their own or together with family, a carer, a doctor, nurse or pharmacist.
On the Choice and Medication website you’ll useful information on:
- Commonly asked questions about mental health medicines
- Mental health conditions and the medicines used to treat them
- Comparing the main medications that are usually prescribed for a mental health condition
- Side effects of medicines
You can also view information leaflets for specific medications.
The homepage has two drop down boxes where you can find information by condition or by medication. Using this search option will show the information on screen (rather than a printable version.)
There is also a general search box.
You can print leaflets by clicking on the orange box that says ‘view leaflets’.
Select the meditation you want, and the ‘select leaflet type’ drop down box will show you the range of leaflets available. If a medicine is more common, there will be more leaflet types and translations available.
Note: Not all the medication listed on the Choice and Medication website will be able to be prescribed in TEWV (see below)
Which medicines do we prescribe?
The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) approves which medicines can be prescribed to patients.
They also carry out ‘technology appraisals’ which give recommendations on the use of new and existing medicines and treatments within the NHS. The NHS is legally obliged to fund and resource medicines and treatments recommended by NICE’s technology appraisals.
The list of approved medication we can prescribe for mental health conditions is called a ‘formulary’.
Our formulary is similar in both areas of our trust. Our formulary for County Durham and Tees Valley can be found at https://www.northeastnorthcumbriaformulary.nhs.uk/default.asp
The formulary for North Yorkshire and York can be found at https://www.yorkandscarboroughformulary.nhs.uk/. The formularies indicate which treatments we use that have been approved by NICE.
L1084, V4, 22/07/2024 (Archive: 23/07/2027)
