How Sciensus’ non-medical prescribing process streamlines biosimilar switching

At Sciensus, we’re committed to working collaboratively with the NHS to solve problems and streamline processes. We know that balancing efficiency, cost-effectiveness and patient care can be extremely challenging. For Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, this balance was put to the test when its homecare pharmacy team had to switch hundreds of patients to an alternative Ustekinumab biosimilar provider.

Faced with the potential for disruption to patient care, administrative strain and demand on clinical capacity, the team, led by Katherine Woods, turned to Sciensus’ non-medical prescriber (NMP) service.

Here we share why Doncaster and Bassetlaw chose to partner with Sciensus to speed up the biosimilar switching process, the challenges we helped resolve and the benefits delivered for both patients and the Trust.

Switching providers without impacting patients

In 2024, the Doncaster and Bassetlaw homecare pharmacy team found themselves needing to switch patients to a Ustekinumab biosimilar when the patent for the Stelara brand ran out. As with any mass provider switch, this carried several logistical and operational challenges. The team’s concerns revolved around being able to ensure that patients’ medication regimens weren’t interrupted and that there was limited impact on already stretched clinical resources.

“Switching to a new provider potentially meant we were facing the challenge of updating patient records and revising or reissuing 100s of prescriptions. With a clinical team working at full capacity, we knew there had to be a better option,” Katherine said.

“Of course, writing new prescriptions is a big enough task on its own, but each patient would have had to have a health check appointment for us to be able to issue a prescription. Not only would this have been an unrealistic ask of our resources, but we’d also have a recurring issue with each of those 100 patients due for their annual review at the same time.”

With these concerns in mind, the homecare pharmacy team wanted to find a solution that would facilitate a seamless transition, reduce the strain on clinical and administrative resources and enable them to maintain high standards of patient care.

Why Sciensus?

The decision to partner with Sciensus was driven by several factors, but the key attraction for Katherine and her team was the ability of our NMP service to provide clinical support and relieve the hospital’s own prescribing capacity.

Our Lift and Shift tool makes drug brand switching simple and seamless and, crucially, doesn’t rely on NHS capacity. Introduced in 2024, the tool is fully automated and can read a patient’s health record and instantly migrate their prescription to an alternative brand without generating any additional workload.

Added to this, our highly skilled NMP team helps to speed up and simplify biosimilar switching without an additional NHS prescription. They are equipped to manage prescription authorisations, ensuring that switching patients to a new drug provider is both quick and efficient. The hospital also felt that Sciensus Connect, our innovative digital platform that offers full visibility and control over patient management, would bring additional benefits.

The result

Our team wrote to all the patients to explain the switch and what would be happening. With data from the hospital, we seamlessly checked and verified every prescription and carried over any remaining time onto the new prescriptions to further alleviate disruption to patients.

“I would wholeheartedly recommend the Sciensus’ NMP service to another trust,” Katherine added.

“The switch to the new provider was efficient and caused next to no disruption to patients and their treatment. We were allocated a dedicated contact within the NMP team and I was confident that they were always contactable should I need to make any last-minute changes. The time and effort saved through the NMP service meant that our patients continued to receive their medication without any unnecessary delays and without overburdening clinical staff here at the hospital.”

To find out more about how our enhanced mobilisation and NMP service could help your organisation, please contact sciensusmobilisation@sciensus.com