Empowering you to meet regulatory and best practice requirements - P2
Empowering you to meet regulatory and best practice requirements
IMPORTANT: Driving safety through scan technology |
Members of the Superintendent Pharmacist’s Office team work in partnership with teams in the Support Office to aid in the development of new and innovative pharmacy technology features which enhance patient safety alongside operational efficiency. ‘Pack scanning’ is a feature, which you will recognise, does this and has offered improved dispensing accuracy for our patients. Bag label scanning also offers safety benefits and is helping to reduce instances of handout error.
As per the new Due Date ‘owings’ guidance, pharmacy team members are encouraged to split a ‘prescription group’ across more than one location in eRetrieval– this guidance is available on BootsLive.
Please ensure that every bag, including any for the patient that have not yet been added to eRetrieval, such as a ‘Due Now’ item, is scanned on handout. Bag label scanning ensures that the bags of dispensed medication that are retrieved for handout are complete and that any incorrectly selected bags (i.e. those for a different patient) are easily identified. To encourage this, the ‘Confirm all Bags’ button will be removed throughout January and the pop-up will close when all the correct bags are scanned.
IMPORTANT: Counselling patients on Wegovy® or Ozempic® |
You will be aware that Wegovy® and Ozempic® are available in a range of strengths and that a patient’s dose is titrated upwards from a starting dose of 0.25mg. Patients prescribed Wegovy® or Ozempic® 0.25mg pens should be counselled on the appropriate use of the medication.
When counselling a patient that is using Wegovy® or Ozempic® at a dose of 0.5mg or higher, it is important to establish their use of the medication, including whether they are already using Wegovy® or Ozempic®, the dose they are on and whether they are increasing their dose with the new prescription. There needs to be a minimum four-week interval before any increase in dose. Some patients may choose to stay longer on a dose than four weeks if preferred. Please see the table below for further information.
| Week | Wegovy® dose | Ozempic® dose |
| 1 - 4 | 0.25mg | 0.25mg |
| 5 - 8 | 0.5mg | 0.5mg |
| 9 - 12 | 1mg | 1mg |
| 13 - 16 | 1.7mg | 2mg (off-label) |
| 17 onwards | 2.4mg | 2mg (off-label) |
Wegovy® training for pharmacists can be found on BootsLearning. Please also refer to the Summary of Product Characteristics for both Wegovy® and Ozempic® for further information.
IMPORTANT: MHRA National Patient Safety Alert for Valproate |
On 28 November 2023, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued a National Patient Safety Alert, asking organisations to put a plan in place to implement new regulatory measures, which need to be in place by 31 January 2024, for sodium valproate, valproic acid and valproate semisodium (valproate). The MHRA alert, which includes advice for healthcare professionals and supporting materials, is available here.
UPDATE: The supply and administration of Controlled Drugs |
The Misuse of Drugs (England and Wales and Scotland) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2023 came into force on 31 December 2023, amending the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001. The amendment allows Paramedic Independent Prescribers and certain other healthcare professionals to prescribe specific Controlled Drugs for certain conditions (according to their profession) and, depending on the type of healthcare professional, also allow administration of these medications to patients, or by patients to themselves following the instructions of the prescriber. Further information is available in the legislation, which can be accessed here.