Safety Alerts October-November 2019

Posted on November 18th, 2019

There have been several alerts reported in the news recently. These alerts are dealt with by our Medicines Management and Dispensary teams who work hard to ensure that these are actioned in a safe and timely manner.

There are different types of alert:

• Stock shortage alert – these are issued when there are national or global shortages of a medication. In these cases, we will contact you once supplies are no longer available and arrange a suitable alternative.
• Drug alerts – these are issued when a manufacturer identifies a fault with one of their products. This can be related to the medicine itself or its packaging. There are different levels of drug alert and often they do not require us to contact individuals. However, on the rare occasion that this does happen we have a robust system in place to contact patients.

The following list should provide an update on alerts you may have read about in the news:

HRT

There have been extensive problems nationally involving both the Patch and tablet forms of HRT. Where possible, please order month in advance to allow us to locate stock (if possible) or source a suitable alternative for you. There are no official dates for when this situation will resolve but some companies have reported May 2020.

Adrenaline pens

There are 3 types of adrenaline auto-injector pens: EpiPen, Jext, and Emerade. Each pen delivers adrenaline and the manufacturer of each pen has a video on their website demonstrating use.

Several months ago, there was a major shortage of EpiPens and we had to swap many patients onto Jext or Emerade. Since then, there have been safety alerts for both of the alternatives, which limited the amount of stock available for us to buy. We will have contacted all affected patients where required.

Please ensure you always carry two in-date pens.

Ranitidine

There has been a lot of news in the media regarding ranitidine recently. This is due to a recent discovery that ranitidine contains a substance called ‘NDMA’. There have been some reports linking NDMA to some cancers. As alarming as this sounds, the manufacturers of ranitidine have said it is still ok to use any ranitidine that you may have left at home. This is because further investigations are still ongoing to determine the amount of NDMA present in ranitidine, and how much is considered a harmful level.

Some companies have taken the precaution to recall their products from the market, and therefore you will no longer receive certain brands in your prescription.

Current advice is that we review each patient individually to see if an alternative is required or if it is appropriate to trial without ranitidine.

We are currently in the process of contacting all affected patients. Unfortunately, we do not know how long it will take for supplies of ranitidine to resume.

If you have any concerns regarding any of these alerts then please feel free to contact Ancaster or Caythorpe Dispensary who will liaise with our Practice Pharmacist regarding any concerns that you may have.