How to prevent unaccounted-for losses of controlled drugs Harold Shipman, known as Britain’s most prolific serial killer, was successful in diverting a large quantity of controlled drugs (CDs) for his own criminal purposes. The subsequent enquiry against him highlighted major limitations in the information available to audit the prescribing and supply of controlled drugs. This…
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Smoking is still the largest cause of preventable death in England. It costs communities an estimated £12.6 billion annually with an additional annual cost of £2.5 billion to the National Health Service (NHS)(1). Public Health England is aiming for a “smoke-free society by 2030 with adult prevalence of five per cent or less”(2). Patients with…
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The 2022/2023 flu vaccine from Ashtons is available to pre-order now, for both your patients and your staff. Ordering now guarantees you our best price for winter 2022/2023, as we will pre-book your vaccines with the manufacturer. There is no minimum order quantity. Please contact our Customer Service Team on 0345 222 3550 or email…
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1. Can you put an Abstral tablet in an easy-to-open container for a patient to take when necessary? It is not advisable to take an Abstral tablet from its packaging and store it somewhere else. The nature of the many products that are designed to dissolve easily in the mouth means they are very sensitive…
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MST granule sachets have been discontinued. If you still have some in stock it is fine to continue to use them, and wholesalers may have a little stock left, but it will eventually run out. If you need to offer a modified release morphine product to a patient with swallowing difficulties or a feeding tube,…
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We have had some interesting queries over the past few months which have required some time to answer in full. We also had some feedback from previous queries which we respond to below. All our visiting pharmacists are there to respond to your queries and if they can’t answer the question on the spot, we…
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Advance planning for flu vaccination clinics has become an important part of patient care. The flu vaccination delivered in the following year provides vulnerable patients with protection against the strands of flu that are going to be the most prevalent over the next year. This is even more important this year, as hospitals deal with…
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The two opioids available for delivery via a transdermal patch in the UK are fentanyl and buprenorphine. Fentanyl products are licensed for severe and chronic pain that requires long-term opioids or that does not respond to non-opioids. Buprenorphine is available in two sets of products – the stronger patches have a similar license to fentanyl while the lower strengths are indicated for non-malignant pain when an opioid is necessary (they are used for cancer pain in some cases, where patients only require low opioid doses)…
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From 31 March 2020 NHS and partner organisations are required to use modern communication methods instead of faxes, such as secure email, in order to comply with their information governance requirements and in a bid to improve patient safety and cyber security. How do we swap to using secure email?
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Motilin is a naturally occurring hormone secreted by the small intestine. It increases gastro-intestinal motility and peristalsis and accelerates gastric emptying. It functions mainly between meals and in doing so prepares the gut for the next meal. Erythromycin happens to be a motilin agonist – working in the same way as the hormone – so can be used when metoclopramide or other prokinetics are unsuitable. It is effective in about half of cases, and concerns about the development of bacterial resistance…
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