2. Care Home and Hospice Medicines - 'Medicines Re-Use Scheme'
Guidance has recently been issued to care homes and hospices that may impact on you. The full document can be found here.
In short, care homes and hospices can re-use medicines that have been dispensed for other patients. There are a number of factors they need to consider before doing so, e.g. no other stocks of the medication, no other alternatives and no longer required by the person to whom it was initially dispensed. This could include CDs as well, and also contains liquids, injections, creams
and inhalers – even those that are sealed in blister packs.
Community pharmacists may be approached to confirm that the medicine is suitable for re-use. Community pharmacists could be asked to do the following:
a) When medicines are out of stock, and there is an immediate need for them, an
alternative preparation should be prescribed and dispensed, as is the usual practice where possible.
b) Where there is no suitable alternative or a prescription cannot be written for the alternative medicine (e.g. out of hours), the community pharmacy team should ask the care home or hospice, whether they
run medicines, re-use scheme and whether they have any stock of the required medication.
c) If the stock of a re-used medicine is available in the care home or hospice, the community pharmacy team must share a copy of the prescription for that medicine with the home and update the corresponding
MAR chart as necessary. The supply of the medication by the care home or hospice will need to be in accordance with that prescription. They cannot rely on a report of its contents.
3. Police Advice Regarding Security
The Police have also issued advice to community pharmacies regarding security. Please download these and print them so that your staff are also aware of them.
b) The second poster is about key contacts and what to do in the event of an emergency - Click here to
access.
