WA Health Misconduct Handling Procedures - Corruption and Crime ...

checks on the clinical aspect of administering drugs to patients). Whilenurse managers were confident daily counts were carried out, there wereno separate, independent checks conducted to verify that the Schedule 8holding was correct.… to be honest, I don’t know if [the pharmacist] checks routinely… I can’t say I’ve noticed her checking with someone …whether she should be checking … maybe she is? …… I think pharmacy sometimes audits the books but I don’tknow … I’m not aware of other management checking …… no [we don’t have random checks] only because we don’thave a problem with them [Schedule 8 drugs] going missing …[150] Some nurse managers conducted their own checks of whether theregisters were completed during the shift, but did not record those checks.Some nurse managers were concerned about the delay in detectingdiscrepancies, due to counts usually being conducted only once in 24hours.[151] In theatres, dispensing of a Schedule 8 drug might not have beenrecorded on the register immediately, especially when more than onetheatre accessed a single drug cupboard. Likewise, the amount of drugdestroyed/discarded (when known) may or may not be recorded in theregister.… there’s one register so things would be happeningsimultaneously [in different theatres] and then filled in [theregister] …[152] Anaesthetists may take an unused or partly used theatre-issued drug withthem if they escort the patient to the recovery area. While the amount ofdrug administered in the recovery area was usually recorded on thepatient medication chart, it was unlikely to be recorded in the theatreSchedule 8 register.Disposal/Discarding of Drugs[153] Discarding partly used Schedule 8 and Schedule 4 drugs was generallyconsidered the responsibility of the nurse or doctor who drew the drug,although this was not a clearly assigned responsibility. The amount ofdrug destroyed/discarded (when known) may or may not be recorded inthe register. The discarding process may or may not be witnessed.… we like it to be witnessed when it’s thrown away … but itdoesn’t always happen …… waste disposal is the big risk … it gets joked about … “whowants half” …37