Medicines Management Policy - Dudley Primary Care Trust

• Ensure they are familiar with the following characteristics of that medicine and
formulation: usual starting dose, frequency of administration, standard dosing
increments, symptoms of overdose, common side effects.
10.4 Transport
PCT staff should not carry controlled drugs unless in exceptional
circumstances or to deliver services to patients such as:
• Terminal patients receiving drugs via syringe drivers.
• Patients undergoing detoxification regimens
• If a nurse is asked by a GP or the GP out-of-hours (OOH) deputising
service, when on the premises, to take out a controlled drug from the
surgery and administer to a patient. It is also the nurse’s responsibility to
ensure this is recorded in the surgery controlled drugs register.
Community Pharmacy delivery services should be used wherever possible
when the patient/client has difficulty collecting their medication.
On occasion it may be necessary for a nurse to collect an urgent prescription
from the pharmacy. The medication must have been prescribed for a specific
patient and the member of staff is collecting them under the direction of the
patient for administration immediately. The nurse should go straight to the
patient’s home and must not leave the prescription in the vehicle unattended at
any point.
When medicines are supplied out of hours, the OOH procedure should be
followed. See - http://joint.dudley.nhs.uk/cmsextra/documents/cms/222-2008-4-
29-4062085.pdf
10.5 Records
Controlled drugs should be documented as follows.
10.5.1 Patient/Client held stock
A running balance should be kept in the patient/client’s records to account for
this stock. If a discrepancy arises then efforts should be made to account for
this. If no reason can be found then the incident should be reported to the team
co-ordinator who is responsible for deciding on what further action should be
taken. The incident reporting procedure must be followed.
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