Shutterstock.com
Alert messages produced by the UK Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) hub are going to change to make them more understandable, SecurMed has said.
SecurMed, which runs UK National Medicines Verification System, will alter the text of the 11 alert messages and 1 related system message, which are produced by the hub when the data on a medicine pack gives cause for concern for its authenticity.
Both the ‘description’ and ‘short description’, which appear when a pack triggers an alert, are being amended.
The changes follow discussions between SecurMed; the UK FMD Working Group for Community Pharmacy, which strives to provide UK community pharmacies with information on how to implement the FMD; and some FMD system suppliers.
The changes will be introduced on 17 March 2019.
Interim guidance published by the UK FMD Working Group for Community Pharmacy has been updated to reflect the revised FMD alert wording, which will start to appear in FMD systems from 17 March 2019.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has advised that the changes do not alter the way pharmacists use the FMD system, but they may start to see the amended wording appearing when they use the system following the change.
A statement from the PSNC said: “If your standard operating procedures contain details of the FMD alert messages, you may want to update your procedures to reflect the new wording.”
Figures published by SecurMed
, which holds data from FMD-compliant medicine packs in the UK, show that 8,383 community pharmacies were compliant with FMD requirements as of 5 March 2019. The same data show there were 339 FMD-compliant hospital pharmacies.
SecurMed figures also showed that 6,288 community pharmacies met FMD requirements when it went live on 9 February 2019. On the same day, 285 hospital pharmacies were FMD compliant.
