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· Controlled drugs
· Medicines use review
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Letters to the Editor
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Controlled drugs
New regulations may hinder rather than help
From Mr B. S. James, MRPharmS
What an excellent article by Cathal Gallagher regarding the Shipman Inquiry
(PJ, 1 July, p13); your editorial (ibid, p2) also sums up the situation
nicely. At the end of the day, doctors should not be prevented from obtaining,
carrying or using Controlled Drugs since this is only going to hinder pain
relief for those patients who need it.
A doctor may use morphine in a number of circumstances, such as myocardial
infarction or limb fractures, and doctors should not be made to feel they
are risking appearing before the General Medical Council if they do not
abide by the huge number of rules and regulations. The only outcome to
this would be that patients in severe pain would be left to suffer, since
the doctor might not want to jeopardise his licence or risk a barrage of
questions. Even paramedics and some nurses and pharmacists can prescribe
or administer CDs, and rightly so: patient access should be encouraged,
not hindered. Why should patients suffer because of a (hopefully) one-off
GP?
And what about dentists and veterinary surgeons? Will they need special
private prescription forms, too?
It seems to me that the Shipman Inquiry has been one big, ridiculous waste
of public money, and it has not changed anything really, but only come
up with masses of extra rules and regulations. It certainly did set out
to achieve the impossible from the start: how can you stop health professionals
doing what they do every day? Where does it stop? Would we be happy when
all injectable medicines that could be used to kill (and this is certainly
not restricted to CDs) are banned?
It seems to me that all the people with power do is come up with rules
for the sake of making rules. Is it justified that so much money is spent
on trying to achieve the impossible?
B. S. James
Cardiff
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Since the review of the Controlled Drugs legislation focused on
medicines for human use, the new arrangements for private prescriptions
for CDs
will apply to dentists, but not to veterinary surgeons.
— EDITOR
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal