Packs with printed dose instructions planned
Some prescription medicines will soon be available with preprinted dosage instructions on their external packaging.
A Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency spokesman confirmed
that discussions between the agency and the Department of Health had
taken place “to consider the possibility of a small number of prescription
medicines being made available with dosage instructions printed on the
packaging as part of the licensing process”.
The plan is not primarily intended to apply to products supplied through
community pharmacies on GP prescriptions, but there will be nothing to
stop companies offering products labelled in this way to community pharmacies.
Tim Armstrong, specialist procurement pharmacist for the south east NHS
region, explained that demand for prepacked medicines from primary care
walk-in centres and out-of-hours services had reached levels that NHS
prepacking units could not meet. Pressure on the units could be relieved
if frequently used packs, such as five-day courses of amoxicillin, were
commercially available.
David Cousins, head of safe medication practice at the National Patient
Safety Agency, said that the NPSA had found that there were problems
with ensuring that correctly labelled medicine packs, including dosage
instructions, were available out of hours in primary care, walk in centres
and hospital accident and emergency departments.
“The NPSA has had discussions with NHS medicines procurement groups,
the MHRA and the DoH concerning this issue and would welcome medicine
packs
for prescription only medicines with dosage instructions and other important
information for patients printed on the packaging in a similar way to
that for over-the-counter medicines,” Professor Cousins said. |
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