An internet website has been launched for approved group protocols for the supply and administration of medicines other than by medical practitioners (www.groupprotocols.org.uk).
The website is managed from the pharmacy department at Hope hospital, Salford, and includes protocols for use in both primary and secondary care.
Mr Peter Jones, MRPharmS, (group protocol co-ordinator, Greater Manchester education and training consortium) told The Journal on February 29 that anyone who had a group protocol approved for use in their local area could submit it to the site so that it could be seen by a wider audience. Any protocols submitted would be checked for compliance with the recommendations of the Crown report on the supply and administration of medicines before they were accepted for posting in the site.
"What we are aiming for is a breadth of quality, rather than quantity," Mr Jones said. He wanted to encourage the submission of protocols that covered areas not already represented on the site, rather than which duplicated existing work. At the moment, the site includes 35 protocols - 19 for nurses, 13 for podiatrists, two for pharmacists (including the Salford emergency contraception trial, PJ, January 8, p44) and one for a laser practitioner.
The greatest beneficiaries of the site were likely to be nurses, particularly those working in primary care who could be quite isolated, Mr Jones suggested.
He explained that the site would be useful as a reference source for people who wanted to produce their own protocols and who wanted to see what other people were already doing. Search fields on the site included clinical area, drug, disease, profession and primary or secondary care. Complex searches using multiple fields were possible and protocols could be downloaded from the site. Mr Jones emphasised that it was important to produce group protocols locally and not to adopt protocols used elsewhere without change.
Anyone who wants to submit protocols to the site can contact Mr Jones via the website or by telephone on 0161 787 5220.