The WYAAT pharmacy programme (known as the Pharmacy Aseptics Collaboration) aims to improve the patient experience by providing access to ready-to-administer intravenous medicines across care settings. This increases patient safety by reducing errors in the manipulation and administration of these medicines and is achieved by manufacturing products in a specialist, licenced facility by highly trained staff. 

There is currently limited capacity within aseptic services due to the highly technical and complex nature of aseptic preparation and manufacturing. However, the need for aseptic services continues to rise due to increasing need for cancer therapies, non-cancer immunotherapy and intravenous antibiotics. In order to continue to meet this growing demand, capacity across the region must also expand to ensure patients receive critical treatment. 

The Pharmacy Aseptics programme aims to deliver capacity of approximately 700,000 products per year which will deliver several benefits for the WYAAT organisations and their patients. By increasing the aseptic capacity available, growth in demand for critical treatments will be met, as well as the ability to manufacture IV medicines, usually prepared in clinical areas by nurses. This release of nursing time will help towards improving patient care and experience.

In 2022, WYAAT was identified as one of five national pathfinder sites and was allocated £24million of national capital from NHS England (NHSE). Once the business case has been approved by NHSE, construction of a new pharmacy aseptic facility will begin alongside the development of a highly skilled workforce. The facility, which will be hosted by Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, will create a new centralised aseptic hub to work alongside the existing aseptic facilities at the six organisations within WYAAT to deliver the benefits of the project.