The Handling of Medicines in Social Care

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) published the revised guidance for the handling of medicines on 16.10.07. It replaces The administration and control of medicine in care homes and children’s services (RPSGB 2003) and has been produced in a user-friendly format using plain language. The revision has taken into account issues now facing the wide range of care settings.

This new document will be the reference document for inspection.

A copy of The Handling of Medicines in Social Care can be downloaded free of charge from the RPSGB’s website at: www.rpsgb.org/pdfs/handlingmedsocialcare.pdf

Hard copies can be purchased for £12.00 per copy (orders of five or more copies at a time will receive a 20% discount).
To order your copy email: hmsc@rpsgb.org or tel: 0207 572 2409.
Credit card or cheque accepted

The purpose of this guidance is to provide professional pharmaceutical advice for people who are involved in handling medicines. The document provides professional pharmaceutical guidance on good practice in the handling of medicines in social care – it is not a comprehensive guide to the legislation. A set of general principles is promoted aimed to ensure safety.

It is not possible to describe every possible situation that may arise and to give hard and fast rules. When a new situation arises professional judgement needs to be used – based on sound principles. For this reason the guidance sets out the principles of safe and appropriate handling of medicines and explains how these apply in specific services. The document has been written by pharmacists with experience in social care, in conjunction with others (including NCERCC). The issue of medicines management has been looked at from the point of view of the care provider and users of social care services.

The responsibilities of children’s homes, secure accommodation, residential special schools and short break services are directly addressed with requirements being made specific by very clear pages and checklists. There are numerous examples of procedures and methods that represent good professional practice, key reference sources, and practice guidance throughout.

The guidance includes:

• Key principles that underpin the safe and appropriate handling of medicines. It explains how these apply in specific services, including residential care homes, secure accommodation, foster care and domiciliary care
• Practical procedures and methods for handling medicines that represent good professional practice and cover all social care settings
• General aspects of medicines management relating to specific care services
• The medicine’s toolkit: Policies, systems, procedures and devices for consideration when implementing measures for handling medicines

Please note: the legislation that social care providers must comply with differs in England, Wales and Scotland and users of this guidance must bear this in mind and check the local regulations.

At the launch Hemant Patel, President, stated the commitment of the RSPGB to ‘making Britain the safest place in the world to receive medicines.’ He explained that the guidance was especially for people with little or no medicines training, this was ‘guidance for use immediately by carers.’ The RPSGB saw the guidance ‘not as just another set of rules for the pharmacist community but offering practical methods for safe practice. The use of examples would bring the issues in care settings to life and allow pharmacists to better understand social care. The end result should be an ‘enhanced service for users and protection for workers’.

Jonathan Stanley, Manager
National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care and Children's Residential Network
National Children's Bureau
Children in Public Care Unit
8, Wakley Street
LONDON
EC1V 7EQ
Tel: 020 7843 1168