Selected items from the News and Latest Additions sections of www.palliativedrugs.com, the world’s leading palliative care website.
Safety updates
NPSA insulin passport deadline
NHS organisations should ensure that by 31 August 2012 the following actions, outlined in the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) alert ‘The adult patient’s passport for safer use of insulin’ (NPSA/2011/PSA003), have been implemented:
- adult patients on insulin therapy receive a patient information booklet and an insulin passport to help provide accurate identification of their current insulin products and provide essential information across health sectors
- health professionals and patients are informed how the insulin passport and associated patient information can be used to improve safety
- when prescriptions of insulin are prescribed, dispensed or administered, health professionals cross-reference available information to confirm the correct identity of insulin products
- systems are in place to enable hospital inpatients to self-administer insulin where feasible and safe.
For more information click here.
Ondansetron new maximum IV single dose
The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has restricted the maximum single IV dose of ondansetron for the management of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in adults to 16mg (infused over at least 15min). This is in response to a recent study which demonstrated a dose-dependent prolongation of the QT interval. There are no changes to the dosing for post-operative nausea and vomiting, for any indication in children or when given by the oral or rectal routes. Ondansetron should be avoided in patients with congenital long QT syndrome and used with caution in patients with risk factors for QT interval prolongation or arrhythmias. Electrolyte disturbances should be corrected before drug administration. The FDA has has implemented similar restrictions. For more information click here.
Prepared by Sarah Charlesworth and Andrew Wilcock