The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7434 p48
13 January 2007

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• Pharmacy practice
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Letters to the Editor

Controlled drugs

Opportunity for misunderstanding

From Mr P. J. Reeder, MRPharmS

Nicholas Aling highlighted the issue of safe prescribing of methadone and clarification was provided by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society about the need to specify quantity of methadone on prescriptions in millilitres (PJ, 2 December 2006, p665).

I notice that the ‘Oxford handbook of clinical medicine’ (seventh edition), in its section on palliative care, makes the following recommendation: “On charts rewrite medications in full if doses change and always give the amount in milligrams especially when using liquid preparations.”

This difference in convention between the writing of doses for the hospital chart and the prescription, if it is indeed common practice, seems to be an opportunity for misunderstanding and error as patients and prescribers move between hospital and other health care settings. Perhaps the Society should have some discussion with the medical profession and the National Patient Safety Agency to ensure that we all use the same convention.

Phil Reeder
Lincoln

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