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FOI Request

Disclosure ID
FOI/02515
Request Date
June 18, 2018
Subject
Vial Sharing Policies
Description
  1. Please can you provide a copy of your medicines management policies for the Trust which includes the policy of sharing medicines in vials and how the policy fulfils the requirements of the Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) with regards to vial sharing?
  2. As part of the Trust’s medicines management policy for vial-sharing. Please can you provide the names of the injectable monoclonal antibody medicines which are being vial shared?
  3. Can you please provide the reasons for vial sharing, for each of the medicines you have listed in Q2, i.e. gain share, cost savings etc.
  4. If gain share is one of the reasons in Q3, please provide the details relating to the gain share for each medicine you have listed in Q2.
  5. If a cost saving is one of the reasons given in Q3 then please clarify what these cost savings are and the recipient of the cost saving.
  6. For each of the medicines you have outlined in Q2, please list the medicines that are vial shared and prepared in Aseptic Units under a sterile laboratory environment fulfilling the requirements of NHS Quality Control North West?
  7. Which hospitals in the Trust are vial sharing in this way.
  8. What were the individual annual Service costs associated with preparing the medicines you have identified in Q2 via Aseptic preparation & were internal departments recharged these amounts? Please provide a list of the hospitals and departments that were recharged.
  9. For the medicines you have identified in Q6 prepared in Aseptic Units, please provide the Service costs for aseptic unit preparation for the following financial years: 15/16, 16/17 and current financial year 17/18, per hospital within the Trust.
  10. How do the drug acquisition costs of each of the medicines being prepared in Aseptic Units listed in Q6 compare to the Service Costs relating to Aseptic preparations for each of these medicines?
  11. Of the medicines you have outlined in Q2 including those which you may not have mentioned so far, which monoclonal antibodies are being administered to patients via vial sharing practices not prepared in Aseptic Unit sterile conditions?
  12. If vial sharing practice is taking place outside Aseptic Unit conditions, please can you provide reasons as to why this practice is taking place? According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP): https://www.cdc.gov/injectionsafety/cdcposition-singleusevial.html Protect Patients Against Preventable Harm from Improper Use of Single–Dose/Single–Use Vials. It states that medications labeled as “single-dose” or “single-use” should be used for only one Patient.
  13. Please provide a list which of the medicines that are being vial shared not using Aseptic Lab conditions which include within their Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC), the following:
    • That the solution for injection does not contain a preservative; and,

    Is for single use and should be administered immediately after drawing the dose into the syringe.

  14. For medicines you have listed in Q14, can you explain why the recommendations of the CDCP and the SPC are not adhered to or implemented and thus patient safety is being compromised.
  15. For those medicines you have identified in Q14, which types of health care professionals (HCPs) are administering the medicines to patients?
  16. How does the Trust communicate with these HCPs the recommendations of the CDCP regarding medicines labelled for ‘single-dose’ or ‘single use’?
  17. Please provide a copy of this communication.
  18. What is the Trust’s Vial sharing policy for medicines labelled for ‘single-dose’ or ‘single use’ and those medicines that don’t contain a preservative.
Response
  1. Please see attached policy document Our Trust pharmacy does not undertake vial sharing. This is because our Trust pharmacy operates under a MHRA section 10 exemption and does not hold an MHRA specials licence. As such, all further questions are not applicable to our Trust.
  2. Our Trust pharmacy does not undertake vial sharing.
  3. As above
  4. As above
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  17. As above
  18. As above
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