Empowering you to meet regulatory and best practice requirements

As all stores are due to have Scan to Accuracy Check functionality by the middle of February, this month’s Patient Safety Champions’ letter revisits this topic. Your Patient Safety Champion will share with you some insights into the process as well as a scenario which explores how human factors can influence it. Please reflect on the factors that led to the failure in supply in the scenario and how any human factor risks may be mitigated in your pharmacy. Please share with your Patient Safety Champion any ideas for SMART-ER actions to support patient safety in your pharmacy.

All pharmacy technicians should now have completed the third module of the programme. The fourth module will be available on an individual’s Boots Learning account from 1 February 2025 (provided the third module has been fully completed). The fourth module explores innovation and patient safety within the leadership component and a focus on children’s health in the common clinical conditions section. In addition, the Boots Macmillan Information Technician part of the module covers end of life care. 

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the Neonatal and Paediatric Pharmacists Group are working together with the aim of improving safe dispensing practices for liquid medicines. As part of this work, a survey has been created. This 5 to 10 minute survey can be completed by all pharmacy team members and is available until the end of February. Please access the survey here. 

With an increase in NHS Pharmacy First Service consultations and in patients seeking advice from community pharmacies regarding minor ailments, it is important that pharmacy team members are alert for any red flag symptoms, including those that may indicate sepsis and to ensure that any appropriate referral or signposting is provided where necessary. 

In 2016, NHS Improvement released a Patient Safety Alert for staff in secondary care highlighting the risk of a significant and potentially fatal overdose if an insulin needle and syringe is used to administer insulin withdrawn directly from a pen device or cartridge. The Alert can be accessed here. 

An insulin syringe and needle must not be used to withdraw medication directly from a patient’s insulin pen device or cartridge. Should pharmacy teams receive a prescription that requests insulin syringes and needles for use with a pen device or cartridges, it is important to have a conversation with the prescriber to discuss suitability for the patient.  

When handing out a CD item instalment, please ensure that an appropriate member of the pharmacy team has double checked that the correct instalment has been selected for supply. This should be done by reviewing the container(s) and details on the label(s) and ensuring that these match the instalment specified on the prescription. Refer to SOP CD03 (or SOP CD03S for stores in Scotland), for further details and the full process.

It is essential that pharmacy team members follow the correct processes for the Repeat Dispensing Service. This includes ensuring that the patient is asked the mandatory questions and that any required counselling is provided when handing out medicines to patients (or their representatives, if appropriate). This helps to ensure that patients get the most out of their prescribed medication and that any issues are identified in a timely manner so that the patient can be supported, as needed. Please refer to SOP RDS for further information; this can be accessed on MyHub.