Destruction
Controlled Drugs which have expired or are no longer required (stock
or patients own) must not be returned to pharmacy but should be destroyed
on the ward/clinic in the presence of a pharmacist or pharmacy technician.
The date, the reason for destruction and
quantity destroyed must be entered in the CD register and signed by the
pharmacist/pharmacy technician and nurse in charge of the ward/clinic at
that time.
All Controlled Drugs must be disposed of in a
safe and effective manner.
All Controlled Drugs in Schedule 2 and those
in Schedule 3 subject to safe custody requirements must be rendered
irretrievable prior to disposal:
- Solid dose formulations should be removed
from blister strips or bottles. Tablets should be crushed with a
tablet crusher or pestle and mortar, and capsules should be opened
before being put into a CD denaturing kit.
- For parenteral formulations, ampoules
should be opened and the liquid poured into a CD denaturing kit.
Ampoules containing powder can have water added to dissolve the powder,
and the resulting mixture can be poured into the CD denaturing kit.
Empty ampoules should be disposed of in a sharps bin suitable for
pharmaceutical waste.
- Liquid dose formulations shoudl be poured
into a CD denaturing kit.
- For transdermal patches (e.g. fentanyl
patches), the backing should be removed and the patch folded over on
itself before disposing of in a CD denaturing kit.
The denaturing kit must be disposed of in a
suitable pharmaceutical waste bin (generally blue-lidded). |