SAFE AND SECURE HANDLING OF MEDICINES

Section 8.10: Destruction and Disposal in General

8.10 Destruction and Disposal in general:
8.10.1 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).

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