A new edition of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s essential guide, The Safe and Secure Handling of Medicines is now available.

An important read for Pharmacy Technicians and Pharmacy, the scope of this professional guidance has been broadened to include all healthcare settings and professionals involved in the handling of medicines. It covers all aspects of good practice when obtaining medicines, their transport, receipt, manufacture or manipulation and storage. It also includes information on the issuing of medicines and their removal or disposal.

It details the four core principles that should govern a framework for the safe and secure handling of medicines. It can be used to develop working practices, policies and procedures to assess the quality of systems in place in a care setting.

APTUK President, Tess Fenn said “APTUK are delighted to endorse this important resource for the safe and secure handling of medicines. It provides a useful tool for all healthcare staff across all settings where ever medicines are used. Applying a quality management system approach serves to ensure patient safety through organisational governance and continual monitoring and improvement. Pharmacy Technicians have an essential role to play in ensuring these professional standards are adopted and applied in our daily work to continually improve practice”.

The guidance is produced in line with the gold standard of NICE accreditation.

The RPS Safe and Secure Handling of Medicines guidance has been broadened to include all healthcare settings and professionals involved in the handling of medicines – find it here.