Empowering you to meet regulatory and best practice requirements 

This month’s Patient Safety Champions’ letter focuses on the importance of following the Controlled Drug (CD) instalment assembly and supply procedures accurately and the positive impact this has upon patient safety.

With your Patient Safety Champion, please use the scenario included in this month’s letter to reflect on the impact that not following the correct procedures for the assembly and supply of a CD instalment can have and how, by following the relevant guidance, you can help to keep our patients safe. Please share with your Patient Safety Champion any insights or ideas for SMART-ER actions that you may have to support patient safety in relation to CD instalment prescriptions in your pharmacy.

There may be occasions when a medicine that is listed as the first line option within an NHS Pharmacy First clinical pathway is unavailable due to stock shortages, meaning that a supply of the medicine under the PGD or Protocol is not possible. In such a circumstance, the pharmacist should use their professional judgment to consider supplying the second line medicine under the alternative PGD to meet the patient’s needs. If supplying the alternative medicine is deemed inappropriate, the pharmacist should refer the patient promptly to a suitable healthcare provider who can initiate treatment in a timely manner.

Some medication has a shortened shelf life once the packaging is first opened and it is important to be mindful of this when creating a split pack of medication as part of the dispensing process. The shortened shelf life specified for a particular medicine may vary by manufacturer or by strength. For example, Xaggitin XL (methylphenidate hydrochloride) 18mg Prolonged-release Tablets have a three-month shelf life once opened and Xaggitin XL 27mg, 36mg and 54mg Prolonged-release Tablets have a six-month shelf life once opened. Any shortened shelf life information will be detailed in the product information, e.g. on the packaging or in the Patient Information Leaflet and/or the Summary of Product Characteristics. Annotate any split packs of dispensing stock accordingly and ensure that the patient is aware of the expiry date. 

February 2024 sees the relaunch of The Boots Healthcare Way. With an increasing number of people being signposted to pharmacies for support with minor ailments, it is vital that our healthcare team members are in a great place to be able to help those customers effectively. Not only do they need to have great conversations with customers to identify those who may benefit from any minor ailments services provided in your store, but they also need to be able to support those customers for whom an over-the-counter (OTC) product is appropriate. Some team members already use The Boots Healthcare Way brilliantly to support our customers but we’re aware that this is not consistent across all team members every time an OTC request is made. Relaunching The Boots Healthcare Way supports team members, regardless of their previous experience, to develop their confidence and competence to offer great care to our customers.

A new eLearning is available and this should be accessed by all healthcare-trained and trainee team members to refresh their knowledge of The Boots Healthcare Way and help them to think about different ways in which they can go the extra mile for our customers. Pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and store leaders have access to a briefing document available on Boots Learning that summarises the eLearning.

To support conversations with each customer who wishes to purchase a codeine-containing product, please discuss the information on the Codeine Patient Safety Card and provide them with a copy. A supply of these accompany the printed version of this edition of The Professional Standard and further supplies are available to order via Linney (using product code WF53229/4329964).

The Care Services dispensing process is currently being simplified and streamlined. As a result, the launch date of the updated Care Services SOPs has been moved to 1st March 2024 to align with the rollout of this new process. Please treat the existing Care Services SOPs as date-extended to the beginning of May 2024 whilst stores transition to the new process.