Draft CD management guidance to be altered
Draft guidance on the safer management of Controlled Drugs is to be
revised in the light of responses (PDF 40K) to last year's consultation
on the subject.
The revised guidance, which is to be published early this year by the
Department of Health, will reflect the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society’s
concern that the draft form could have resulted in clinical needs being
neglected by health professionals concentrating on avoiding risk, rather
than maintaining benefit for patients (PJ, 16 July 2005, p71).
The majority of respondents to the consultation believed that the draft
guidance achieved the right balance between strengthening controls and
maintaining patient access to necessary CDs, but there was general concern
that prescribers should not be deterred from using CDs.
Respondents’ views on whether the planned new arrangements make
best use of existing controls were split evenly between those who thought
that they did and those who thought that they did not or who had no strong
view. Nevertheless, the revision will provide more clarity on how strengthened
controls fit within existing systems.
The revised guidance will also make it clear that it applies to all CDs,
regardless of their schedule status. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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