Update From The CAS Helpdesk: Change In Communication For Medicines Supply Issues

The Medicines Supply Team at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Commercial Medicines Unit at NHS England and Improvement (NHSEI) are now accredited issuers of National Patient Safety Alerts for medicine supply issues.

From week commencing 14th February 2022, all communications of medicines supply issues by DHSC or NHSEI that carry a significant patient safety risk (Tier 3 or Tier 4, see Appendix) and meet the National Patient Safety Alert Criteria will be issued as National Patient Safety Alerts. These alerts follow the criteria and template agreed by the National Patient Safety Alerting Committee (NaPSAC). From this date, Supply Disruption Alerts will cease to exist.

Changes to Supply Disruption Alerts:

  • All medicine supply issues that meet the National Patient Safety Alert criteria will now be issued as National Patient Safety Alerts (NatPSA) which replace the old Supply Disruption Alerts (SDA).
  • Responses will continue to be collected via the Central Alerting System (CAS) website.
  • Medicine supply issues that do not meet the NatPSA criteria will continue to be issued via other communication pathways, as outlined in the appendix linked

 

  • Reference numbers for National Patient Safety Alerts will always be noted in the following format:
  • NatPSA/Year/Number/Issuing organisation
  • For example: NatPSA/2022/006/DHSC or NatPSA/2022/006/CMU.
  • The numbers will run sequentially, so the next NatPSA issued will take the next number in the sequence
  • (007, 008, 009 etc) regardless of which organisation is issuing the NatPSA.

 

Actions

    • Identify appropriate escalation routes within your organisation for NatPSAs to ensure executive oversight.
    • Review systems for implementing the actions required by NatPSAs including reviewing policies, processes, and governance systems. NatPSAs typically require action to be centrally coordinated on behalf of the entire organisation.
    • Note the dual running period, as all issuers of alerts via CAS transition to the NatPSA format, and action all alerts in the appropriate manner.
    • Contact via email if you have any questions or concerns: DHSCmedicinesupplyteam@dhsc.gov.uk

    Click here for more information and the appendix CHT-2022-001.pdf