Destruction of out-of-date Controlled Drugs
It has come to the attention of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s
Fitness to Practise and Legal Affairs Directorate that a number of instances
have been reported where pharmacists have unlawfully destroyed out-of-date
stock of Controlled Drugs.Set out below is the procedure for the destruction
of CDs.
Stock CDs Any person required by the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001
to keep records of Schedule 1 or 2 Controlled Drugs may only destroy
them in the presence of an authorised witness. The Society’s inspectors,
police chemist inspection officers and Home Office inspectors are authorised
witnesses. Some members of the management of larger bodies’ corporate
and pharmaceutical advisers have also been authorised by the Home Office.
Particulars of the date of destruction and the quantity destroyed must
be entered in the CD register and signed by the authorised person in
whose presence the drug is destroyed.
Out-of-date stock of Controlled Drugs must only be destroyed in the presence
of an authorised witness and should be destroyed whenever the police
chemist inspection officer visits. Where there is no regular visit by
the chemist inspection officer, the pharmacist can telephone the local
police station and ask for an officer to witness the destruction.
A pharmacist may be asked by a doctor to accept out-of-date stock of
Controlled Drugs for the purpose of destruction. Controlled Drugs returned
by a doctor to a pharmacy must be entered in the register. As these Controlled
Drugs are stock, their destruction must be in the presence of an authorised
witness.
CDs returned by patients A pharmacist or a practitioner may destroy
Controlled Drugs returned to him by a patient or a patient's representative
without the presence of an authorised person. Such Controlled Drugs should
not be returned to stock, but must be kept under safe custody while awaiting
destruction. As the quantity of Controlled Drugs being returned can often
pose a storage problem, as well as an increased security risk, pharmacists
are encouraged to destroy patient returned Controlled Drugs as soon as
possible. Although there is no legal requirement to do so, pharmacists
should document the destruction of patient-returned medication and have
a member of staff to witness it. The record of destruction should be
made somewhere other than the CD register, for example, at the back of
the prescription register.
All Controlled Drugs must be rendered irretrievable before disposal.
Details of how to do this can be found in ‘Medicines, ethics and
practice: a guide for pharmacists’, 27th edition (July 2003), p27. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal