Expert medicines advice. Better acute care.
Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are central to safer medicines use and better outcomes for people with acute medical illness.
From the first medicines history through Acute Medical Units (AMUs), medical Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) and discharge, pharmacy colleagues support complex clinical decisions, reduce avoidable medicines harm and improve continuity of care.
SAM connects pharmacy professionals with the wider acute medical team through education, quality improvement, research, professional representation and opportunities to share what works.
Pharmacy expertise supports the entire acute medical pathway.
What do you need today?
Explore pharmacy's role across the acute medical pathway, develop your practice, find safer medicines guidance or connect with colleagues through SAM.
Pharmacy on the acute pathway
Discover how pharmacists and pharmacy technicians contribute from admission to discharge.
Explore the role →
Develop your practice
Explore pharmacist and pharmacy technician career pathways, credentials and professional development.
Explore career development →
Guidance and patient safety
Find professional standards, medicines reconciliation, time-critical medicines and prescribing resources.
View guidance →
Connect, improve and share
Meet Ekta Punj, connect with pharmacy colleagues and contribute your ideas, research and improvement projects.
Get involved →Pharmacy across the acute medical pathway.
Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians make an essential contribution to safe, effective and person-centred acute medical care. From medicines reconciliation at admission to treatment optimisation, clinical review and discharge planning, pharmacy professionals work alongside the wider multidisciplinary team to improve outcomes and patient flow.
Medicines at admission
Obtain accurate medicines histories, identify discrepancies and support medicines reconciliation as early as possible after admission.
Identify allergies, interactions, high-risk medicines and medicines-related causes of acute illness.
AMU and medical SDEC
Provide medicines optimisation, structured medication review, clinical monitoring and advice on complex treatment regimens within acute medical pathways.
Identify problematic polypharmacy, support appropriate deprescribing, contribute to antimicrobial stewardship and help patients make informed decisions about their medicines.
Ward rounds and clinical decisions
Contribute specialist medicines expertise to multidisciplinary ward rounds and treatment planning.
Support prescribing decisions, dose adjustment, therapeutic drug monitoring and optimisation of treatment for patients with multimorbidity and complex needs.
Medicines safety
Identify and prevent medication errors, adverse drug reactions, prescribing omissions and avoidable harm.
Support safe use of high-risk and time-critical medicines, review drug interactions and advise on treatment alternatives during medicines supply shortages.
Discharge and transitions of care
Support timely and accurate discharge prescriptions, medicines reconciliation and communication of medication changes.
Provide patient counselling, improve understanding of treatment and support safe transfer of medicines information to primary care and community pharmacy teams.
Quality improvement and innovation
Lead and contribute to audits, research, medicines safety programmes and multidisciplinary quality improvement initiatives.
Improve prescribing processes, reduce avoidable medicines waste, strengthen pathway reliability and support safer, more sustainable acute medical services.
Reviewing medicines is particularly important for patients living with multimorbidity, frailty and problematic polypharmacy. The Royal College of Physicians' Acute Care Toolkit 17 offers practical recommendations for managing multiple medications in acute hospital settings, including service improvement and sustainability.
Explore RCP Acute Care Toolkit 17 ↗ · More professional guidance ↓
Developing your pharmacy career.
Different professions, different pathways, shared contribution. The Royal College of Pharmacy's enhanced curriculum, introduced in September 2026, provides a timely new resource for early-career pharmacist prescribers.
Featured: Enhanced pharmacist curriculum and credentialing
Supporting newly registered prescribing pharmacists to develop professional judgement, safer autonomous practice and capability across wider professional domains.
The 2026 RCPharm Enhanced Curriculum is a post-registration development pathway. It is a stepping stone to advanced pharmacy practice, not the same as the Acute Medicine ACP curriculum.
Development capabilities
- Person-centred clinical care and prescribing
- Professional judgement and accountability
- Leadership and management
- Education and supervision
- Research, evaluation and improvement
Pharmacist pathway
Registration and prescribing
Build clinical foundations, consultation skills and a defined prescribing scope.
Enhanced practice
Develop through supervised practice, the new curriculum and portfolio learning.
Advanced and specialist practice
Take on greater clinical complexity, service leadership and education appropriate to your role.
Consultant-level practice
Lead high-level expertise, research, education and system-wide improvement where roles exist.
Pharmacy technician pathway
Pharmacy technicians contribute distinct professional expertise in medicines reconciliation, management and supply, systems safety, education, operational leadership and improvement.
Development may include initial registration, post-registration foundation learning, accuracy checking, medicines management, specialist clinical services and senior or advanced-level technician roles, depending on the nation and employer.
Key principle: Do not assume the pharmacist prescribing or credentialing pathway applies to pharmacy technicians.
Example: NES pharmacy technician education ↗Pharmacy across the four nations.
Core professional principles are shared, but postgraduate education, workforce arrangements and some regulatory requirements differ. Choose your nation for official guidance.
England CPPE · NHS England · RCPharm
CPPE supports pharmacy learning in England, while the Royal College of Pharmacy's UK-wide curricula support professional development and credentialing.
Northern Ireland NICPLD · Pharmaceutical Society NI
NICPLD delivers education for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. The Pharmaceutical Society NI regulates pharmacists. Pharmacy technicians are not currently registered or regulated by PSNI; reform work continues.
Scotland NHS Education for Scotland · Advanced practice
NES supports the entire pharmacy workforce, including foundation, advanced pharmacist and pharmacy technician development, through national programmes and Turas resources.
Wales HEIW · Pharmacy workforce education
HEIW supports pharmacist and pharmacy technician education and development across NHS Wales. Its 2026 foundation model provides structured support for early-career independent prescribing pharmacists.
Professional guidance. Safer medicines.
Practical resources for medicines optimisation, clinical decision-making, patient safety and pharmacy professional development. Apply current national guidance and local policies to individual patient care.
Hospital pharmacy standards
Professional standards for person-centred, safe and integrated pharmacy services across hospital settings.
Royal College of Pharmacy ↗Medicines reconciliation
NICE NG5 guidance on accurate medicines information, reconciliation and safer transitions of care.
NICE guidance ↗Time-critical medicines
Practical approaches to reducing omissions and delays involving essential time-critical treatments.
NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service ↗Enhanced pharmacist development
The 2026 enhanced curriculum, professional credentialing and structured post-registration development.
Royal College of Pharmacy ↗Clinical and prescribing CPD
Structured clinical learning and professional development for pharmacy professionals, primarily in England.
CPPE learning resources ↗Specialist clinical pharmacy
Specialist professional networks, clinical education and shared expertise through UKCPA.
UK Clinical Pharmacy Association ↗Managing multiple medications
RCP Acute Care Toolkit 17
Polypharmacy is common in patients presenting with acute medical illness, particularly those living with multimorbidity and frailty.
This toolkit supports multidisciplinary teams in recognising complications of multiple medications, reviewing medicines appropriately and improving the safety of prescribing in acute care.
It also includes recommendations for hospital services, quality improvement and more sustainable medicines use.
Managing medicines shortages
Medicines supply and patient safety
Supply shortages can disrupt treatment and require safe, timely decisions about suitable alternative medicines.
Access medicines supply information, consider patient-specific risks and support continuity of treatment through collaboration between acute medical and pharmacy teams.
NHS SPS provides professional supply information, while the Royal College of Pharmacy offers wider policy and improvement resources.
Learn, improve and share.
Use the same multidisciplinary SAM resources as the wider acute medical team, with opportunities to contribute a pharmacy perspective.
Learning Hub
Webinars, podcasts and education across the acute medical pathway.
Explore learning →Short-form CPD
Practical bite-sized learning for busy healthcare professionals.
CPD Whilst You Wee →Quality Improvement Hub
Tools and guidance to plan, measure and sustain safer pharmacy processes.
Explore QI →Research Hub
Evidence, research opportunities and collaboration across Acute Medicine.
Explore research →Your profession. Your voice. Your SAM.
Meet your Pharmacy Representative, connect across organisations, share practical examples of good care and help shape SAM's work.
Ekta Punj
Advanced Clinical Pharmacist
for Acute Medicine
University Hospitals Birmingham
NHS Foundation Trust
Ekta's interests include pharmacy services in Acute and Emergency Medicine, improving medicines-related patient safety during admission and supporting patient flow through acute and emergency services.
Learning and connecting
Bring questions, ideas and experience from medicines optimisation, clinical pharmacy and pharmacy technician practice to the wider Acute Medicine community.
Explore SAM learning →
Share what works
Tell others about a safer medicines pathway, a practical pharmacy-led quality improvement project or a service redesign that improved patient care.
Explore SAM Improvement Exchange →Get involved with the pharmacy community
Contact your representative
Raise ideas, professional challenges or priorities for SAM's pharmacy community.
Contact Ekta ↓Contribute to education
Suggest webinars, clinical cases or medicines safety topics for SAM learning.
SAM Learning Hub →Celebrate pharmacy achievements
Share a service innovation, publication or improvement project for a future Pharmacy Spotlight.
Suggest a story ↓