Viewpoint: Impact of EU FMD on medicine dispensing

The EU FMD allows for certain decommissioning dispensations for the secondary care sector. Decommissioning of a medication can be performed at any point whilst in the possession of a hospital, however, where an organisation decides to decommission will have an impact on their work processes. A hospital pharmacy that decides to decommission at the “goods in” stage and a hospital that decides to decommission at the point of dispensing will experience different obstacles.

The primary care pharmacy sector is somewhat more straightforward in terms of EU FMD compliance as there is less flexibility when it comes to the decommissioning step. Medicines must be scanned at the point of dispensing which is in contrast to the hospitals setting. However, where exactly in the dispensing process could medicine decommissioning take place and what are the knock-on effects for daily activity? Can the pharmacist, accuracy checking technician, dispenser or the counter assistant decommission? What are the implications for one staff member decommissioning at one stage above another staff member at another stage in the dispensing and checking process?

Decommissioning at the point of dispensing provides up-to-date information regarding whether or not the medicine is expired, recalled or falsified. Furthermore, medicines can be purchased months or even years before being dispensed which creates an opportunity for a drug to expire or be identified as recalled or falsified after decommissioning but before being dispensed. Therefore, scanning at the point of supply allows for the most up to date information to be used closer to the patient. Furthermore, if the unique product identifier can be inserted into the digital patient medical record then this can be used for patient-level drug recalls, a process that is extremely difficult to achieve under current work processes.

The FMD represents a valuable opportunity for medicine dispensing, this 2D barcode could be scanned as part of the “Scan for Safety” agenda as well as the opportunity to understand better a hospitals drug supply chain and could be used for efficiency gains.

This publication can be viewed in full at http://medicine-access.pointofcarejournals.com/article/f44f56ed-a619-4935-8c49-b7524265a973

Bernard Naughton is a specialist clinical pharmacist by background with experience spanning all major clinical areas. He is currently conducting a collaborative PhD with Keele University and the University of Oxford investigating the emerging issue of medicines counterfeiting.