Palliative Care Formulary launches online on MedicinesComplete

11th January 2019

The online Palliative Care Formulary (PCF) is now available on the MedicinesComplete platform.  The formulary is the go-to resource for healthcare professionals in palliative and hospice care and now sits alongside our collection of world renowned drug information, including the British National Formulary (BNF), Martindale and Stockley's.

Since the acquisition of Palliativedrugs.com in August 2018, the expert content of the PCF has been put into an enhanced, user friendly format.  The migration to MedicinesComplete now offers organisational wide access for hospices, trusts and institutions, improving patient care and enabling wider use of important prescribing resources for palliative care practitioners, researchers and students of palliative medicine worldwide.

Paul Bennett, CEO of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said:

“Providing care and support for people with a life-limiting illness is one of the most important roles of a health professional. I am delighted that we are enhancing the support we can give to practitioners through the Palliative Care Formulary. By adding this to the MedicinesComplete portfolio more people will be able to benefit from this vital resource.”

Karen Baxter, Managing Director of Pharmaceutical Press, said:

"We have built on the existing reputation of Palliativedrugs.com by delivering the Palliative Care Formulary on MedicinesComplete, allowing this valuable resource to benefit from more dynamic and intuitive functionality, and link to other internationally renowned products. This further establishes the Palliative Care Formulary as the 'go-to resource' in Palliative care and provides a perfect complement to our existing suite of products and services that includes the British National Formulary, Martindale’s ADR checker and the Stockley’s Interactions Checker."

Andrew Wilcock, former MD of Palliativedrugs.com and Chief clinical editor of the Palliative Care Formulary, said:

“It's been very rewarding to see the Palliative Care Formulary emerge in its new iteration as a fully modern online resource.  I'm hopeful that this valuable prescribing information will reach more palliative care practitioners than ever before and I look forward to seeing the service go from strength to strength over the coming years.”

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Gabapentin and pregabalin scheduling and safe custody arrangements

9th January 2019

Gabapentin and pregabalin will be classified as Schedule 3 controlled drugs, under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001, from 1 April 2019. However, they have also been listed as exempt from the safe custody arrangements, under the Misuse of Drugs (Safe Custody) regulations 1973.

This means that although full controlled drug prescription and requisition requirements will be required for supply, gabapentin and pregabalin do not need to be stored in a separate locked controlled drug cabinet.

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GP guide on cannabis-based products for medicinal use

8th January 2019

The Royal College of General Practitioners has produced an interim desktop guide to help GPs have informed conversations with patients about medicinal cannabis.

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NHS survey on end of life access to medicines in the community

8th January 2019

NHS England have produced a survey to gather information about access to specialist palliative and end of life care medicines in the community. The survey closes on 18 January 2019.

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