About neonatal pharmacy
Pharmacists play a critical role in ensuring safe and effective medicines use for neonates, a population with a unique and rapidly changing physiology and ability to handle medications. Their contributions include:
- Optimising medication choice, dosing and monitoring to improve safety and efficacy, with particular attention to the high prevalence of unlicensed and off-label medicines in neonatal care.
- Managing complex therapies, such as neonatal parenteral nutrition, which require specialist knowledge and judgement.
- Reducing medication errors and harm, in line with the WHO Global Patient Safety agenda, and reducing medicines related harm through effective multidisciplinary working.
- Supporting clinical governance through expert advice, development of evidence-based guidelines, quality improvement work, and strategic input to unit operation.
- Developing and maintaining digital systems, such as EPMA and intravenous drug pump libraries to support standardised practices and enhance medication safety.
- Providing education and training for medical & nursing staff, allied health professionals, and families on safe medicines use.
- Ensuring continuity of care by supporting timely medication supply and accurate transfer of information at discharge or transition to another care environment.
- Improving outcomes and efficiency. Evidence shows that pharmacist involvement reduces mortality, length of stay, adverse drug events, incidence of drug-drug interactions and costs.
- Standardising care and reducing unwarranted variation by contributing to and implementing regional and national projects.
Neonatal standards
The full range of Pharmacy services and input will only be possible if a unit is staffed appropriately. Where recommended staffing levels are not met, it is not possible to provide all the support described above.
Pharmacy staffing for Neonatal units is set out in the NPPG Neonatal Staffing Standards, which are further recommended by BAPM and are set as the required staffing levels by NHS England Specialised Commissioning for Neonatal Critical Care.
Neonatal Pharmacy Staffing Standards - NPPG
Professional groups
The Neonatal and Paediatric Pharmacy Group (NPPG) supports all pharmacy professionals to deliver outstanding care for the benefit of neonates, children and young people.
Within the NPPG there is the Neonatology Special Interest Group, which aims to support the delivery of outstanding care to neonates and their families by advancing the education and training of pharmacy professionals, championing quality research and audit, contributing to national neonatal and perinatal workstreams, and leading the national neonatal medicines agenda.
If you are a pharmacy professional new to neonatal care, or a member of the neonatal MDT interested in learning more about neonatal medicines use, we encourage you to take advantage of the Baby Flamingo! training that was launched by the Neonatology SIG in 2025.
The NPPG Neonatology SIG is organised and run by a committee of neonatal pharmacists from across the UK.
