Pressure ulcers: Safeguarding adults protocol

20th January 2018

The department of health and social care has issued guidance on safeguarding adults at risk of developing pressure ulcers and preventing harm where they occur.

click here to view

Tapentadol m/r SPC updated

18th January 2018

The SPC for tapentadol m/r tablets now states that the shell of the tablet may not be digested completely and may be present in faeces, but that this has no clinical relevance.

Editors note. This phenomena, known as ‘ghost tablets’ has also been reported with other PO m/r opioid products (see the Dose and use section of our oxycodone monograph).

click here to view

Co-dydramol new strengths available

18th January 2018

Co-dydramol tablets (dihydrocodeine/paracetamol) were previously only available as co-dydramol 10/500mg. Two products are now available with a higher strength of dihydrocodeine (co-dydramol 20/500mg and 30/500mg tablets). MHRA have stated that co-dydramol products should be prescribed and dispensed by strength to minimise dispensing errors and the risk of accidental opioid overdose.

click here to view

New low strength of tolvaptan available

18th January 2018

Tolvaptan 7.5mg tablets have been launched to add to the 15mg and 30mg tablets already available. The lower dose of 7.5mg once daily is indicated for patients at risk of overly rapid correction of sodium e.g. patients with oncological conditions, very low baseline serum sodium, taking diuretics, or taking sodium supplementation.

click here to view

Drug name confusion

18th January 2018

MHRA have highlighted the risk of confusion between similar sounding or similar looking drug names. This follows more reports, including cases with fatal outcomes, of confusion between similarly named or sounding brand or generic names. Examples include clobazam and clonazepam; risperidone and ropinirole.

click here to view

Patient Safety Alert: Oxygen cylinders

18th January 2018

NHS improvement have issued a patient safety alert highlighting the risk of death and severe harm from failure to obtain and continue flow from oxygen cylinders. The recent introduction of integral valves, as a fire safety precaution, has had the unintended consequence of staff believing oxygen is flowing when it is not, and/or unable to turn the oxygen flow on in an emergency.

click here to view

Robert Twycross, PCF Editor-in-Chief retires after 20 years

1st January 2018

Dr Robert Twycross (MA, DM Oxon, FRCP, FRCR) has retired as joint Editor-in-Chief of the Palliative Care Formulary following the publication of the sixth edition (PCF6).

With Andrew Wilcock, and also more recently Paul Howard, he has been a co-author or Editor-in-Chief for 20 years. This has seen PCF change from the 250 page first edition (1998), to the 890 page sixth edition (2017). 

Over this time, global sales have exceeded well over 100,000; and American, Canadian, German, Italian and Japanese versions have been produced. In the UK, PCF has become a core text for the specialty of Palliative Medicine. 

With Andrew Wilcock, he founded palliativedrugs.com Limited in 2000. This provided on-line access to PCF, for many years as a free resource. Membership has grown to over 37,000 members from 153 countries and provides a unique global community for the advancement of palliative care. 

In addition, he continued to co-author other core text books: Introducing Palliative Care (5^th edition 2016) and Symptom Management in Advanced Cancer (now out of print), also published by palliativedrugs.com Ltd. 

Throughout this time he has travelled extensively, teaching in many countries, including Argentina, China, Hungary, India, Poland, and Russia.

We are honoured to have worked alongside such an inspirational and influential pioneer in the development of palliative care, and thank him wholeheartedly for his commitment, support and guidance. We will formally mark his retirement in January 2018 and if you would like to share any anecdotes or convey your wishes to Robert, please complete our survey on the home page.

With warmest wishes for your retirement, Robert, from all of us at palliativedrugs.com.

click here to view