Published: 20/01/2005

Patient reporting of adverse reactions begins (20/01/05)

Patients, parents and carers can now report suspected adverse drug reactions to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) under pilot schemes launched on 17 January. Reports can be made either through the website (www.yellowcard.gov.uk/; see here for further details ; accessed 18/1) or using the Yellow Card report forms which have been distributed to GP surgeries.
 
At the same time, the Department of Health and the MHRA have announced that patients and researchers will be able to access medicine safety data (see here; accessed 18/1).

The changes follow a review of the Yellow Card scheme and public consultation.
 

More than 3800 qualified EFNPs (18/01/05)

There are now more than 3800 nurses registered with the NMC as Extended Formulary Nurse Prescribers (EFNPs), of whom over 3300 are also qualified as supplementary prescribers, according to the latest figures from the Department of Health (DH; download document here; accessed 11/1). In addition, there are now more than 290 qualified pharmacist supplementary prescribers.

The latest version of the DH document ‘Mechanisms for nurse and pharmacist prescribing and supply of medicines’ also makes clear that the regulatory changes that will allow supplementary prescribing of controlled drugs are unlikely before Spring 2005. Work between the DH and the Home Office is continuing, in the context of the findings of the Shipman Inquiry.

A cautious approach to using patient group directions (PGDs) to supply antimicrobial medicines is recommended in the document. A PGD should not jeopardise any strategy to control increasing resistance and PGDs should not be used for the supply or administration of minor viral illnesses unaffected by antibiotics.
 

CNO says incremental additions must stop (18/01/05)

The current system of incremental additions to the nurse prescribing list will not work, says the chief nursing officer Chris Beasley, according to an interview with ‘Nursing Times’ (14 December 2004; p3). She said that many nurses have told her it makes the process complicated and slow.

 

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