Medicines Formulary

The Sussex Partner formulary has been developed as a tool to promote safe, high quality, and cost-effective prescribing for patients residing in Sussex, in accordance with local and national guidance.

The formulary is used to support the managed introduction, utilisation, or withdrawal of prescribed treatments in Sussex. It applies to all prescribers across the local health economy (primary and secondary care) and aims to cover most of the prescribing in Sussex, whilst recognising that there will be instances where prescribing outside the formulary may be both necessary and appropriate.

Work is currently ongoing to align the formulary within the Queen Victoria Hospital (QVH) with the Sussex Partner formulary.

The QVH Formulary was been developed to support effective prescribing within QVH. It is a quick reference resource of key prescribing information for all prescribers, to ensure evidence-based, cost-effective prescribing and formulary adherence, and to ensure prescribing is in line with recommendations from local, area-wide and national guidance.

It contains a list of drugs that are recommended for use within our hospital as well as additional resources to help aid effective prescribing.

All prescribing from within the Trust (i.e. inpatient and outpatient) must comply with the Formulary.

Generic prescribing

QVH supports generic prescribing as an important aspect of good prescribing. The exception to this general rule is medicines which should be prescribed by their brand name due to potential differences in bioavailability, therapeutic window or potency or simply to ensure continuity of medicines.

How to use the Joint Formulary

At QVH we are still using Medicines Complete, an electronic version of the British National Formulary (eBNF) where we are able to add a colour-coded traffic-light system to the medicines to facilitate prescribing choice:

• Green: On formulary and available at our trust
• Amber: Restricted (information on restrictions can be found in the notes when the medicine link is selected)
• Red: These are non-formulary and not available at our trust.

The eBNF is automatically updated each month with new information from the BNF. The QVH Formulary statuses linked to the eBNF are constantly under review and being updated. At present not all medicines have statuses attached; please contact us if you need further information.

You may search for a medicine using the search function, or browse the different summary formulary reports which provide an overview of the formulary statuses of drugs by body system.

Access the Medicines Formulary

You can access the Formulary here.

How medicines are approved

Medicines are approved for use following application to our Medicines Management Optimisation and Governance Group using the Medicines Management Procedure for the Introduction of New Medicines or New Indications. Please contact us for further information. If approved, an application will then be made to the Sussex Area Prescribing Committee for any medicines that require prescribing by primary care.

Medicines recommended for use by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and NHS Specialised Services are automatically approved for use. However, these are only included in our Formulary where they are relevant to the services we are commissioned to provide, and it may be necessary to refer you to a different centre for access.

Page last reviewed on October 2023