Role of the Controlled Drugs Accountable Officer

The Controlled Drugs Accountable Officer

Samantha Travis is the Controlled Drugs Accountable Officer (CDAO) for NHS England North Midlands. This area covers Shropshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

Contact Details for the Controlled Drugs Team are:

The Controlled Drug reporting website – www.cdreporting.co.uk has undergone a review and development process and as a result, the website has been upgraded and some of the reporting modules have been re-designed or modified based on comments from users and to make the reporting modules compatible with other national reporting systems.

This is a very exciting re-launch that has been designed to improve upon the way the reporting of concerns, incidents and other controlled drug functions currently happen and to further standardise processes across regions to comply with the Dame Janet recommendations from the Shipman enquiry.

The CD Reporting website will change on Thursday 1 December 2022 and from this date there will be several changes.  Before this date, please continue to report as you normally would.

Reporting Modules

The following Modules are available on the website.  There are further modules in development that will be rolled-out in time.

Incident and Concerns reporting

This reporting form has been changed for ease of use for the reporter.  It was previously one reporting module, and is now replaced by two different modules, with slightly different questions to ensure that the pertinent information is captured.  The modules have a change in focus now looking at harm to patient rather than risk.

• Incident Module – An event or situation arising in the course of work that resulted in or could have resulted in injuries, illnesses, damage to health, or fatalities.  “Near miss” or “dangerous occurrence” are also terms for an event that could have caused harm but did not and these may be treated as an “incident”
• Concerns Module – A matter of interest or importance to the Controlled Drugs Accountable Officer on the safe use or management of Controlled Drugs.  Events that are yet to be corroborated or substantiated also constitute a concern.

Concerns can now be reported anonymously, as well as when logged into the Reporting website.

Application to be a Temporary Authorised Witness

This process has been redeveloped to ensure ease of use, and to support professionals requesting to witness the destruction of controlled drugs in more than one organisation.

Log a Controlled Drug Destruction

This module has been redeveloped to link with the Temporary Authorised Witness licence and make it easier to record the drug destructions witnessed by the Temporary Authorised Witness.

 Controlled Drug Declarations

The Declaration form has been redesigned, to capture the information providing assurance to the Controlled Drug Accountable Officer that organisations have processes and policies in place to ensure safe handling and management of controlled drugs, in all areas including, administration, prescribing and dispensing.

 Additional functions

The website retains a number of features and functions, which have all gone through a review and design process, as well as new features and functions.  These include:

• My Messages – where the Regional Controlled Drug team may send information or requests to reports submitted.  Reporters will receive an email informing them that they have a Message and will need to log into the Controlled Drug website to access the information in the message.
• My Reports – where reports submitted can be viewed, as well as reports that need to be completed and submitted.
• Resource Centre – information about controlled drugs, regional and national controlled drug newsletters and communication, website library for controlled drug resources.  User guides for the modules can also be found here
• Adding information to reports – Once submitted, the reporter can send in additional information and comments for every report submitted.  This includes internal investigation findings relating to controlled drug incidents, or to clarify comments on the declaration.  This is a new feature to the reporting website.
• Multiple organisations – these can be listed in the reporter’s profile.  The reporter then selects from a drop-down list which organisation the report is for.  The report will then be sent to the relevant Regional Controlled Drug team, without the reporter needing to change their settings, as is the current way to do this.  This is support GP Practice managers and Pharmacy superintendents among other professionals who work at multiple practices or branches for one organisation.
• Technical Help desk support – is available to support with technical queries or issues with the website.  The team can be contacted on 0113 825 5238, via email on england.cdreportingtechnicalhelpdesk@nhs.net or through the message system on the website.
• Contacts – The information for the Regional Controlled Drug Accountable Officer’s and their teams will be available.

Registration

Reporters will need to register the first time they use the new Controlled Drug Reporting website.  Once they have gone through the registration process, they will have access to reports previously submitted.

When registering, reporters can add multiple organisations, in different regions, that they work for.  Reporters will also be able to amend their details at any time and add or remove organisations.

Please complete the registration process to access your Controlled Drug Website account at your soonest convenience from 1 December 2022.

In the meantime, please continue to report as normal.  Further information regarding the upcoming changes can be found at www.cdreporting.co.uk. Or if you have any queries, please contact us or the CD Reporting Help Desk team – england.cdreportingtechnicalhelpdesk@nhs.net.

Why and When to report CD incidents
Healthcare professionals have a statutory duty to report all complaints, concerns or untoward incidents involving controlled drugs (schedules 1 – 5) to the NHS England Controlled Drugs Accountable Officer.  Examples of incidents that require reporting include (this list is not exhaustive):

 Prescribing errors involving CDs
 Patient complaints involving CDs
 Concerns with colleagues or patients
 Medicines management CD issues
 Missing or lost CDs
 Discrepancies in the recording and stock levels of CDs
 Dispensing errors involving CDs

If you have a concern or make an error please report it; only by sharing this information can we learn from the incidents that have occurred. Your report may also help to inform wider concerns regarding controlled drugs.

How to Report a CD Incident
Reporting CD incidents, concerns or issues should be submitted via the on-line CD Reporting Tool. This is accessed via www.cdreporting.co.uk

the first time you use the tool, you will be asked to register, which is a quick and easy process. Following that initial registration, you can then log in via password for future visits. Incidents reported via the CDRT ensure that data is centrally and nationally captured to recognised and agreed standards and formats, and all incidents are automatically and immediately forwarded to the CDAO for review.

CONTROLLED DRUGS UPDATE

Sharing Good Practice in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire Shropshire and Staffordshire

Further Functions of the CDRT .  The CDRT is being developed to enable reporters to utilise a ‘one-stop-shop’ in CD management.
The following functions are currently available to reporters (or in development):

 Requesting an Authorised Witness for Destruction of Out of Date CDs
 Quarterly Occurrence Reporting (for NHS Trusts and other large providers)
 Annual Declarations (for GP Practices, NHS Dentists, Private Dentists & Private Midwives)
– in development

Destruction of Controlled Drugs

If you have out of date CDs awaiting destruction, please ensure this is actioned in a timely manner. If you require an authorised witness to attend your pharmacy, please log your request via the CDRT: www.cdreporting.co.uk ; a witness can then be arranged, ensuring appropriate sharing of duties geographically.

If you have CDs or other medication for destruction resulting from patient returns, this is treated differently. Please ensure:

The destruction is witnessed by an appropriate member of your pharmacy team
Items are destroyed in accordance with regulations
Items are recorded in a bound ‘patient returns’ book

Further Information Updates
Please note that the NHS England North Midlands CD Team produce a short newsletter four times per year which contains relevant information to anyone prescribing, handling, managing and monitoring CDs; recent articles included:

 Advice on dealing with fraudulent prescriptions
 CDs and Fitness to Drive guidelines
 Safe disposal of empty methadone bottles
 NPS e-learning resource
 Validity of prescriptions
 Storage of CDs in a patient’s home
 Improving the visibility of Fentanyl patches
 Consultation on proposals to schedule Pregabalin and Gabapentin
 Review patients on high volumes of Morphine sulfate oral solution

Newsletters are sent out widely (electronically) to all NHS GP surgeries, Dental surgeries and all pharmacies in the North Midlands, LPCs, LMCs, LDCs, LOCs, CCGs, acute Trusts, all CD LIN members, CCGs, Prisons, Police CDLOs, hospices, out of hours medical services, care homes and other bodies and individuals on request.

CD Newsletter Nov 2019