Use of Medication in Social Care Settings: A Legal Perspective

A prescription can be identified as legally authorised written instruction by a prescribing officer to a pharmacist to dispense medication.

Roles and responsibilities of the person dispensing the medication is to check to make sure the prescription is legal and signed by a qualified person, ensure there are no errors, to dispense the right quantity and dose of medication, make sure the medication is clearly labelled with the instructions of the dose, the name of the medication and person, provide advice and treatment for any minor illnesses and health concerns. Pharmacies will also provide a repeat prescription service.

A pharmacist must check any medication that is administered to a patient. This is the

Prescription of medicines (POM). These are only available from a pharmacist if they are prescribed by an appropriate doctor.

1. The main legislation that governs the use of medication is The Medicines Acts 1968. The following is a list of legislations that have a direct impact upon the handling of medication within a social care setting.

Non care setting - Medications are often stored and administered in a variety of non-health care settings. These settings include: primary and secondary schools, Child day care centres, Board and care homes, Jails and prisons. In all these settings, employees frequently are responsible for handling and administering prescription and over-the-counter medications to clients or residents. Some organizations may employ licensed health professionals to directly manage the medication administration process. However, many of these settings have no licensed health professionals involved. Where medications are stored and administered to individuals, written policies and procedures should address the following: Acquisition of medications (e.g., from parents, caregivers, pharmacies), Specification of which personnel are allowed access to medications and allowed to administer medications to students, clients or residents, Labelling and packaging of medications managed for students, clients

* Trained and designated care workers give controlled drugs, another trained, and designated staff should witness. (Standard 9.7 and 20.9)

The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations2002 is the regulation that helps to control the risk of hazardous substances that may cause harm to individuals at the work place. The regulation states that when working with medication in a care home the managers is responsible for carrying out a risk assessment, this will assure that the medication is being handled with care. The manger also has to ensure hazardous substances are used safely and also stored correctly in the care home.

Assisting – At the request of the service user, opening bottles and packets; removing lids; popping pills out of packages when the service user cannot physically do this and has asked the care worker to help with that specific medicine; shaking bottles.

M1 – discuss organisational policies and procedures are by influenced legislation and guidelines with regard to the administration of medication

1. In the workplace there is a generic Medication Management Policy and Procedures for Adult Services (Issue 10, 2012) document. This is kept to hand in a locked cupboard, readily available to read. It requires that all Healthcare Staff are given mandatory training and refreshers are provided. Legislation which surrounds the administration of medication includes The Medicines Act 1968, The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, The Data Protection Act 1998, The Care Standards Act 2000 and The Health and Social Care Act 2001

There are several legislations in place with protocols for the administration of medication which I have listed below. The main policy re admin of drugs and storing of drugs and medicines is the Control Of Substances Hazardous to Health or COSHH but along with this there are other policies in place as per the list below.

3.1. Describe the roles and responsibilities of those involved in prescribing, dispensing and supporting use of medication

The nurse must verify the physician’s medication order, including the dose and time, and then the pharmacy is responsible for their own checks and balances via the BCMA system in order to complete the dispensing phase of the medication (Gooder, 2011). The nurse enters the BCMA system with a login and password and is able then to see a list of the virtual due list for a specific patient. The computer on wheels is then taken to that patient’s room and the five rights of medication administration begin. As nurses, we are taught to use the five rights of drug administration are (1) right patient (2) right medication (3) right dose (4) right route and (5) right time. By scanning the barcode on the patient’s hospital identification band, the nurse then asks for the patient to verbally state their name and date of birth, which can be verified by the nurse on the virtual due list and then choses the medication that are due for administration at that time. The medication is dispensed and the nurse is able to scan the barcode on the medication, the scanning triggers the automatic documentation of the medication given (Kelly, 2012).

There are other pharmacy staff who also have roles in relation to the safe dispensing of medicines. A pharmacist is responsible for: Overall checking of a prescription to make sure that it is legal and written by a person qualified to do so, dispensing the right quantity of the correct medicine, ensuring that medicines are correctly labelled with the person’s name, the name of the medicine and the dosage, providing advice and treatment for minor illnesses, injuries and health concerns, providing a repeat prescription service in co-operation with GP