Guideline highlights legal implications of crushing tablets
Crushing tablets or opening capsules should only be carried out as a
last resort and could have important medical and legal consequences,
according to a consensus guideline for the medicines management of people
with dysphagia published last week.
The guideline, developed by a group of experts and supported by Rosemont
Pharmaceuticals Ltd, are aimed at prescribers and other health professionals
with the goal of standardising pharmaceutical care for patients with
swallowing difficulties.
David Wright, senior lecturer in pharmacy at the University of East Anglia,
led the group, which also included a lecturer in speech and language
therapy, a lecturer in health care law and a GP. They say that prescribers
should check with their patients whether they have problems swallowing
medicines and take this into consideration when prescribing. Community
pharmacists should assess the suitability of formulations for individual
patients and report swallowing difficulties to prescribers, they add.
“
Altering a solid-dose formulation should be reserved as last-resort and
practised only after appropriate advice has been sought from a pharmacist
or medicines information centre,” says the guideline.
It highlights the legal implications of crushing tablets or opening capsules.
If tablets that should not be crushed are crushed they are being used
outside their licence and greater liability therefore rests with the
prescriber, dispenser or person responsible for the provision or administration
of the medicine, it says.
The guideline is available at website that provides information on swallowing difficulties for patients and
health care professionals. The website
has a comprehensive list of products available in liquid or dispersible
form. |
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