Evidence from Australia, Canada, and Europe suggests transitions between primary and secondary care impact on the quality and continuity of medication therapy. Findings from this study, the first, to the authors’ knowledge, to investigate the impact of an emergency hospital admission on changes to prescribing in primary care in England, indicate that prescribing increases after discharge, but then falls to pre-hospital levels 6 months later. Potentially inappropriate prescribing increases following a hospital admission, both in the short and long term. |