The July meeting of the UK Radiopharmacy Group was held at Aston Unviersity, Birmingham, prior to a dinner celebrating Stuart Hesslewood's retirement from the NHS. Items of general interest are summarised below.
Recruitment and Career Progression A working party met recently to consider training schemes and recognition of radiopharmaceutical science as a specialty. Two routes were considered: the Association of Clinical Scientists (ACS) or the Health Professions Council (HPC). The entry route is not simple, requiring 4-6 years of post graduate training. This would be parallel to the grade A medical physics scheme, which is centrally funded by the Department of Health. Provision of post training supervision might be difficult in a small specialty such as ours. There will also need to be a parallel scheme for radiopharmacy technicians. Training sites will need to be accredited, but by whom?
Agenda for Change (AfC): at risk of sounding like a broken record (does anybody remember what a record is?) sorry, still no news!
Radiopharmacy Computer Software Veenstra expects to have a beta version available for the EANM congress in Helsinki. Shortly afterward, a working group will evaluate it at a UK centre in the north-west.
At least three hospitals in England and Scotland are purchasing a radiology information system for which the vendor has promised a radiopharmacy module, possibly as early as September.
Excepted Packages There was discussion a few months ago about packaging for radiation excepted shipments. If recycled Type A packaging is used for excepted shipments, a local specification must be established.
Cr-51 EDTA Discussion with the MHRA is continuing but further clarification is required. There are various practices across the UK, with the differences largely based on volume. It has been suggested that the manufacturer should provide a unit dose format; however, informal discussions have suggested this is extremely unlikely to be adopted. If the current format were used as unit dose, or for no more than one working day, the manufacturer would not have the capacity to supply sufficient material. Discussion will continue.
To throw another spanner into the works, a review of the toxicity of benzyl alcohol, particularly to neonates, has been published: O Rabiu, P Forsey, S Patel. Preservatives can produce harmful effects in paediatric drug preparations. Pharmacy in Practice, 2004; 14(4):101-110. Of relevance to this discussion is the recommendation that the total dose of benzyl alcohol should not exceed 10 mg/kg/day. If diluted Cr-51 EDTA contains 1% benzyl alcohol, 4 mL would deliver this amount to a 4 kg neonate.
Radiopharmacy Workshop 2005 The Bournville workshop will be held on 7 January 2005. An interesting preliminary programme covering a variety of topics in radiopharmacy practice has been assembled. The syndicate work will be Controversy Corners: 6 topics in a 15 minute version of musical chairs. Must be seen to be believed. Don't miss it! Mailing soon.
Education/Training The Easter course in radiopharmacy at King's College London is being held much earlier next year, during the week of 10 January. For information please contact Dr Tony Theobald: phone 020 7848 4809, fax 020 7848 4800, anthony.theobald@kcl.ac.uk.
Accreditation of ATOs is being considered by the College of Pharmacy Practice. For info, contact info@collpharm.org.uk.
VirRAD Funding is being sought to keep VirRAD running after the start up period expires. A revised version is being launched. Within a short time, the RADPHARM discussion group will be terminated and its role subsumed under VirRAD. The courseware is being expanded, with modules on radiopharmaceutical QA and generator elution being available. The virtual lab is well worth a look. VirRAD courseware will be used to deliver one of the modules in the King's course next year.
Clinical Trials Directive The situation has become only slightly clearer. IMP inspections will likely be co-ordinated with GMP inspections, possibly without additional charge. There is the possibility that IMP licences will not be required for single institution studies or for large commercially sponsored trials with their own licences. Guidance is yet to come on "qualified person" status. We hope to have an authoritative speaker at the Bournville workshop in January.
Out of Hours Deliveries The BNMS is preparing a guidance document on security of out of hours deliveries which will be issued soon. It is currently being vetted by the HSE.
Capacity Planning There will be a generic capacity plan in the 4th edition of the aseptic services book, due out shortly.
In the news: NICE assessment of myocardial perfusion imaging Nuclear medicine departments are attempting to find a way to deliver the increased capacity required by this directive. Although the rate limiting step is usually stress testing, at least one hospital has contracted out reporting sessions! Another consideration in increasing capacity is higher doses to radiopharmacy and imaging staff.
In the news: Sentinel node imaging The results of the ALMANAC study (Lancet in June) were picked up in the national media. However, the impression was given that sentinel node imaging originated in Wales and is only available there. There may be capacity implications for nuclear medicine in this as well, though the radiation dose is much less.
Biodex Radiopharmaceutical QC Manual Available free from Bartec Technologies. Contact Grahame McCracken, 01252 376737 (grahame@bartectechnologies.com)
Membership Changes The committee wishes Stuart Hesslewood all the best in his new job in industry. We also welcome Sue Akrill from Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and Pei-San Chan from St George's Tooting to the committee.
Editor Jim Ballinger, Nuclear Medicine, Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, St Thomas Street, London SE1 9RT, phone 020 7188 5521 or 020 7188 4116, fax 020 7188 4094 e-mail james.ballinger@gstt.nhs.uk