The North East of England has the lowest healthy life expectancy and the highest health inequalities of any region in England. The conventional model, whereby we ‘expect’ individuals to be motivated to attend a ‘healthcare setting’ to undergo cardiovascular disease (CVD) health checks every 5 years has low levels of uptake, with populations most at risk frequently failing to engage.

The objective of this study was to gather behavioural insights into the barriers/challenges that limit engagement with the current NHS CVD Health Checks.

Drawing on a Behavioural Insight approach, 7 qualitative focus groups with members of ethnic minorities and underserved groups (n=45 participants) were conducted to understand barriers and challenges to uptake of NHS CVD Health Checks in one region in North East England (Middlesbrough). Data were analysed using a Behavioural Insights approach, applied to establish key themes, barriers and enablers.

Our findings identified that underserved communities in North East England find engaging with NHS CVD Health Checks challenging due to issues related to access, understanding and attitudes. Communities identified that harnessing relationships with existing community champions would raise awareness and confidence in engaging. Making services accessible where communities gathered, while also increasing understanding and knowledge, was also recognised as key to engagement.

Our study suggested that despite there being substantial barriers to engagement with NHS CVD Health Checks, novel methods encouraging uptake may be effective to address the significant health inequalities seen in deprived communities. Ensuring a co-developed and co-delivered approach to CVD risk reduction with underserved communities, together with social marketing campaigns to raise awareness about the importance of CVD, and why reducing its risk is so important, is key to success.

Transition of care from hospital is a period when the risks of medication errors and adverse events are high, with 50% of adults discharged having at least one medication-related problem. Pharmacist-led medication reviews can reduce medication errors and unplanned readmission when completed promptly post-discharge; however, they are underutilised. A Transition of Care Stewardship pharmacist has been proposed to facilitate and coordinate a patient’s discharge process and facilitate a timely post-discharge medication review. Access to pharmacist medication review in rural and regional areas can be limited. This protocol describes a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to determine whether a virtual Transition of Care Stewardship pharmacist reduces medication-related harm in rural and regional Australia.

Multicentre RCT involving patients at high risk of medication-related harm discharged from regional and rural hospitals to a domiciliary residence. Eligible patients must be aged≥18 years, admitted under a medical specialty, be discharged to a domiciliary setting, have a regular general practitioner (GP) or be willing to visit a GP or an Aboriginal Medical Service after discharge for medical follow-up, have a Medicare card and be at high risk of readmission. High risk of readmission is defined as either a previous admission to the hospital or Emergency Department (ED) presentation in the past 6 months AND≥three regular medications OR on at least ONE high-risk medication. A total of 922 participants will be recruited into the study. Enrolled participants will be randomised to the intervention or control (usual care). The intervention will include a virtual Transition Of Care Stewardship pharmacist to ensure that patients receive discharge medication reconciliation, medication counselling, medication list and communicate directly with primary care providers to facilitate a timely post-discharge medication review. Usual care will include informing the patient’s clinical inpatient treating team that the patient is at high risk of medication misadventure and may benefit from a post-discharge Home Medicines Review (a GP-referred pharmacist medication review funded by the Australian Government).

Data analysis will be performed on a modified intent-to-treat basis. The primary outcome assessed is a composite of a first unplanned medication-related hospitalisation or ED presentation within 30 days of hospital discharge. Comparisons between the intervention and usual care groups for the primary outcome will be made using a mixed-effects logistic regression model, adjusting for site-level clustering as a random effect.

This study is approved to be conducted at the Western New South Wales Local Health District via the Research Ethics and Governance Information System (approval number: 2023/ETH00978). To ensure the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients are appropriately addressed, ethics for this study were submitted and approved by the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council (approval number: 2148/23). Manuscripts resulting from this trial will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals. Results may also be disseminated at scientific conferences and meetings with key stakeholders.

ACTRN12623000727640.