A feasibility study to explore the introduction of a remotely controlled medication issuing machine during the out-of-hours period in rural and under-served areas of Wales. The REmote MEdiction maDe easY (REMEDY) study

During the evening, overnight and at weekends, some people find it difficult to get medications prescribed by a doctor because local pharmacies (chemist shops) are closed, and patients may need to travel long distances. This can be hard for those people who cannot travel easily. If they can't start their medications quickly, minor health issues can turn into serious ones, which might need a hospital stay. Outside the hours of 9am-6:30pm, being able to get a medication after a telephone consultation with a doctor is important for people’s health and for reducing the costs associated with delayed treatment when problems such as infections worsen. This is a big issue in rural and other areas of Wales with worse access to pharmacies. We want to find out whether technology can help to solve this problem and will install a machine (called REMEDY) to supply medications. 

The machine is like a vending machine but there would be no charge to patients. If the doctor decides that someone needs a medication after speaking to them on the telephone, they can tell a REMEDY machine located near to the patient’s home to supply that medication to the patient. Patients would be given a code by the doctor. Entering the code into the local REMEDY machine will release their medication. We plan to test out REMEDY machines in Dolgellau and Holyhead. We want to find out what will work well and what will not work well for patients and medical staff using this machine by watching and talking to them, as well as using information from the machine and from the Out-of-Hours service. We will also look at whether the machine provides value for money. 

Members of the public have already taken part in discussing the problems with getting medications outside normal working hours and have helped to develop a suitable machine. They will be part of groups giving advice to the REMEDY machine project and will help with patient facing materials and publications. 

We hope that our study of how the REMEDY machine is used will show us whether it could help to provide medications more quickly when the local pharmacies are closed. We'll use this study to help us develop the methods for a larger study looking at the use of the machine in different sites across Wales. We will also write a report, provide tools for organisations who want to use the REMEDY machine in the future, and information for policymakers and companies. We will share this, so that patients, doctors, policymakers and companies can understand what works well and what does not work well about using the REMEDY machine