The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7354 p775
18 June 2005

Society summary

An occasional feature, prepared in the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Professional Standards Directorate, to highlight problems and inquiries currently being handled

Law and Ethics Bulletin, 2001 to present
See also Good Practice Points, 2003 to present

• Professional judgement needed in sales of Valoid (cyclizine)
• Handwriting exemption for Controlled Drug prescribing
• Instalment dispensing of diazepam on FP10(MDA)

Professional judgement needed in sales of Valoid (cyclizine)

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has recently been made aware of requests for cyclizine, which on the face of the request appear to be genuine but on further investigation are not.

In one case, pharmacists were approached by a man purporting to work for an oil-rig company. Requests were made for three packs of 100 Valoid tablets, and then on further occasions larger quantities were requested.

Pharmacists are advised to be aware of the potential for abuse of cyclizine, and should deal with requests personally. When met with a request for cyclizine, pharmacists should use their professional judgement and refuse the sale if it is suspected that it is not being purchased for a genuine medicinal purpose. Neighbouring pharmacies should be alerted in the event of bogus requests.

A comprehensive list of medicines that are liable to misuse appears on p110 of the 28th edition of ‘Medicines, ethics and practice: a guide for pharmacists’. However, products that are misused are subject to change and pharmacists are encouraged to keep abreast of any local trends.

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Handwriting exemption for Controlled Drug prescribing

Pharmacists should note that the phone numbers used for confirming a doctor’s handwriting exemption for Controlled Drug prescribing have changed to:

0207 035 0468, 0207 035 0471 and 0207 035 0473.

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Instalment dispensing of diazepam on FP10(MDA)

On 14 April, NHS Regulations were amended to allow for instalment dispensing of diazepam on the FP10 (MDA) prescription form in England. (Previously, instalment dispensing was allowed only for buprenorphine and Schedule 2 Controlled Drugs.)
The instalment dispensing prescription form can only be used for the purpose of ordering the supply by instalments. The period of treatment is not to exceed 14 days, and the prescriber must specify the number of instalments to be dispensed and the interval between each instalment.
Pharmacists should note that diazepam is the only benzodiazepine that can be prescribed by instalment on the FP10 (MDA).