Empowering you to meet regulatory and best practice requirements

‘Text automation’ is already live in all stores that do not use the Dispensing Support Pharmacy (DSP); stores that do use the DSP will also soon benefit from this feature. As mentioned in the January 2024 edition of The Professional Standard, the way in which ‘Due Date’ owed items are managed has changed. These changes are designed to help provide patient-centred care by updating patients on the progress of the dispensing of their medication. Dispensing all available items for a patient prior to their arrival in store will help to reduce pressure by not having to assemble an item(s) at pace while the patient is kept waiting in the pharmacy. Adding each bag of dispensed medication to an eRetrieval location will similarly help support a less pressured handout process, as the location of each bag will be displayed clearly.

Before creating an owing, it is important to check that the stock figure in Columbus is accurate. If there is any available stock, this should be used and a partial owing created if appropriate, as this ensures stock rotation and helps to avoid a ‘Controllable owing’ appearing on the pharmacy’s ‘Scorecard’.

In order to continue to support patient safety and an efficient handout/handover process, please:

• Explain to patients that as part of the enhancement to our text messaging service they may get an ‘UPDATE, Order in progress’ text and what this means
• Keep together throughout the dispensing journey all paper prescriptions (or tokens) for a patient that have been data entered at the same time
• Ensure dispensed medication is only handed out if the associated paper prescription(s) (or token(s)) is attached to the bag(s) - if the prescription(s)/token(s) is not present, there may be an outstanding item(s)
• Continue the daily focus on any prescriptions that have an outstanding item(s) by reviewing the owings queue in Columbus (as well as the owings box) to ensure that each patient receives their medication in a timely manner or that if required an alternative item is arranged and provided to them
• If you redeem an owing which is associated with a prescription that has dispensed items in eRetrieval, ensure that the associated prescription/token is removed from the bag in eRetrieval and that the assembled owed item is placed its own eRetrieval location

Sertraline Oral Concentrate contains 100mg sertraline per 5ml and must be diluted before administration. The required dose must be diluted with approximately 120ml of water, ginger ale, lemon/lime soda, lemonade or orange juice and taken immediately. Note that it should not be mixed with anything other than these stated liquids. If an undiluted dose is taken, the patient may be at risk of an adverse reaction (for example, a localised reaction in the mouth or throat). Please ensure that patients supplied with this product are provided with counselling on how to take the medicine appropriately.

Espranor^® oral lyophilisates are not interchangeable with other oral buprenorphine products; they have a 25% to 30% higher bioavailability compared to generic buprenorphine sublingual tablets or Subutex^®  and are placed on the tongue (dispersing in 15 seconds) rather than under the tongue (dissolving in 5 to 10 minutes). If a patient is switched from the sublingual tablets to Espranor^®, a dose adjustment is therefore required. For further information, the MHRA public assessment report for Espranor^®  2mg and 8mg oral lyophilisates can be accessed here. 

The Yellow Card Biobank, which launched in June 2023, is a collaboration between the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Genomics England. The goal is to improve understanding of how a patient’s genetic makeup may increase their risk of harm from side effects of medication by aiming to create a rich resource of genetic information that could help researchers determine whether a suspected side effect was caused by a specific genetic trait.  This will help healthcare professionals make safer and more effective prescribing decisions in the future. Further information on this, as well as information on interactive Drug Analysis Profiles and medication error reporting is available on the MHRA Yellow Card website.