Little opposition to prison GSL supply plan
Plans to allow prison officers throughout the UK to supply general sale
list medicines to prisoners (PJ, 17 April 2004, p466)
have met with little opposition (PDF 45K).
Only nine out of 65 responses to the suggestion, made by the Medicines
and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency last spring, expressed opposition.
Most of the negative responses came from individual prison officers or
their representatives. Even so, 20 of the 28 responses from prisons and
prison officers generally favoured the plan.
Six pharmaceutical organisations that responded to the consultation did
not object to the proposal, but wanted supplies to be backed up by protocols
and good record keeping.
The Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists said that there should be detailed
protocols for individual medicines and that only a limited list of medicines
for common ailments should be available.
The National Pharmaceutical Association had no objections to making all
GSL medicines legally available from prison officers, but said that restrictions
should be imposed by means of protocols and local or national formularies.
Any protocols should be audited regularly by health care staff. |
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