Society leads the way for handling medicines in social care settings
A new publication entitled “The handling of medicines
in social care” (PDF 1Mb)has been launched by the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society this week. The Society says the document provides professional
pharmaceutical
guidance for people working in every area of social care to improve the
safety and quality of medicines management.
Recent years have seen a rapid growth in social care establishments and
a 2006 report by the Commission for Social Care and Inspection — “Handled
with care?” — criticised standards of medicines’ handling
in social care settings.
That report pointed to wrong medicines being given to residents, poor
recording of medicines received and administered, medicines being inappropriately
handled by unqualified staff and medicines being stored inappropriately.
It concluded that “homes themselves need to put their house in
order and place medication management at the top of their agendas”.
The Society’s new document has been produced in response to this need for
clear guidance.
Speaking at the launch, Hemant Patel, the Society’s President, said: “This
document will help care providers to tackle the problems identified in the CSCI
report and enhance the quality of service for people in their care. It will also
help to protect workers by providing guidance on safe working systems.”
The guidance includes:
• Key principles that underpin the safe and appropriate handling of
medicines — it explains how these apply in specific services, including
residential care homes, secure accommodation, foster care and domiciliary
care
• Practical procedures and methods for handling medicines that represent
good professional practice and cover all social care settings
• General aspects of medicines management relating to specific care services
• The medicines toolkit — policies, systems, procedures and devices
for consideration when implementing measures for handling medicines
• A glossary and reference source, including legislation and guidance
from professional organisations
The Society prepared “The handling of medicines in social care” in
consultation with stakeholders, including the CSCI, the Care Standards
Inspectorate for Wales, the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of
Care, the Healthcare Commission, the National Children’s Bureau
and several home care organisations. It replaces “The administration
and control of medicine in care homes and children’s services”,
which the Society published in 2003, and has been produced in a user-friendly
format using
plain language that is accessible to all care-workers, including those
who do not necessarily have formal medical or health care qualifications.
Heidi Wright, head of quality improvement at the Society, commented: “Care
workers often face real difficulties when managing medicines and are
required to use their professional judgement to ensure this is done safely.
However, in supporting them, it is not possible to describe every situation
that may arise and give hard and fast rules. For this reason the Society’s
guidance sets out the principles of safe and appropriate handling of
medicines and explains how these apply in specific services.”
Ms Wright said that, as experts in medicines, pharmacists are ideally
placed to provide professional medicine’s guidance to care workers: “As
an added advantage, this document has been written by pharmacists with
experience in social care,” she explained. “They have looked
at the issue of medicines management from the point of view of the care
provider and users of social care services.”
Although “The handling of medicines in social care” is applicable
to the whole of Great Britain, social care legislation differs in England,
Wales and Scotland and the Society says that people should check local
regulations alongside use of this document.
The Society added that it is committed to helping everyone use medicines
safely to maximum the benefits of drug treatment.
A copy of “The handling of medicines in social care” can
be downloaded free of charge from the Society’s website.
Hard copies (£12 each) may be purchased and orders
of five or more copies at a time will attract a 20 per cent discount
(tel 020 7572 2409;
e-mail hmsc@rpsgb.org). Credit cards
or cheques can be accepted. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal