Controlled Drug management guide for hospitals welcomed
 Pharmacists charged with implementing recent legislative changes about Controlled Drugs have welcomed last month's guidance published by the Department of Health and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
Speaking about “Safer
management of CDs — a guide to good practice in secondary care
(England)”, Alison Ewing, clinical
director of pharmacy at Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals
NHS Trust, and accountable officer at the trust, told Hospital Pharmacist that the guidance is useful in a number of ways. In particular, it summarises
the responsibilities of accountable officers and makes it clear that
holders of this position must be at “arms length” from the
day-to-day handling of CDs. The guidance also forces trusts to work in
a multidisciplinary way, and emphasises the importance of CD management
to trust board members, Ms Ewing said.
As a result of the guidance, the North West (of England) Chief Pharmacists
Group (of which Ms Ewing is vice-chair) has produced a strategic document
amending standard operating procedures to fall in line with the guidance.
Andrew Alldred, director of pharmacy at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation
Trust said that multidisciplinary ownership of the agenda is important. “For
example, nurses are often unaware that they are legally accountable for
safe and secure handling of CDs on their wards,” he said. (See
Comment, p178).
According to Robert Clayton, head of practice at the Society, the document
was designed to set out robust systems for procuring, storing, supplying,
transporting,
prescribing, administering, recording and disposing of CDs, while helping
to ensure that access for patients who require them is convenient and
appropriate.
In a related development, consultation
has started on Home Office proposals to further update the Misuse
of Drugs Regulations
2001.
Suggested amendments
include
that accountable officers be able to authorise individuals, or classes of
individuals, to witness the destruction of CDs (because the role
of police chemist inspection
officers has changed) and that midazolam be moved from Schedule 4 to Schedule
3 of the Regulations (with exemption from safe custody requirements).
Views
on allowing electronic prescribing of CDs are also sought. |
|
Hospital
Pharmacist