The Group held its most recent meeting in Birmingham in collaboration with the annual workshop. The workshop was attended by 50 people and concentrated on two issues - the introduction of PET radiopharmaceuticals into practice and practical issues in implementing IRMER training. The former was didatic, whereas the latter involved syndicate work. Participants were also given some "homework", which if it is completed will be compiled into a reference document intended to provide a basis for future training requirements. The workshop format now appears to be firmly established in the calendar. Acknowledgement needs to be made to Paul Maltby who has been deeply involved in the organisation of all events so far.
Recruitment of radiopharmacy staff / succession planning The current problems were acknowledged and discussion on how to make progress took place. There did not appear to be an easy answer, since recruitment is not peculiar to radiopharmacy. However, the need for a national strategy based on a model of delivery of radiopharmacy services was recognised. This needs to take into account professional functions of the role in addition to the supply function. A session devoted to this important topic will take place at the next meeting of the group. In the meantime, any comments or information on present difficulties would be gratefully received.
Administration of POMs by MTOs and Clinical Scientists Following the publication of HSC (2000) 026 on Patient Group Directions, problems about administration of non-radioactive prescription only medicines arise in departments staffed by MTOs and Clinical Scientists. The Group wrote to the MCA before Christmas highlighting the anomalies that could exist between departments performing identical procedures but staffed with different groups of staff and the fact that the current practice of Nuclear Medicine would be severely affected. At the time of writing of this newsletter, no reply has been received.
Training / education The programme for the April training course in Radiopharmacy at King's College, University of London has now been finalised and published. The dates are April 2nd-5th. Further details available from Tony Theobald (e-mail : anthony.theobald@kcl.ac.uk). Attendance for individual days or the whole week is possible.
Tenth European symposium on Radiopharmacy and Radiopharmaceuticals. Granada May 5th-8th. A mailing of further details is expected imminently and updating of information on the web-site for the symposium is also taking place (www.molypharma.es). The group has again decided to offer 4 travel grants of £250 each to help potential participants attend the symposium. There is no requirement to present a paper or poster, but successful applicants will be required to submit a short report of the meeting (approx 1 side of A4), which will appear in a future edition of the newsletter. Applications should be sent by e-mail to James Thom, the group's chairman at : jamesdthom@hotmail.com. Applications are welcome from all staff, but preference may be given to people less likely to obtain funding from other sources.
Withdrawal of Dicopac. The mailing list used by Nycomed Amersham to inform customers does not seem to have reached all potential users of Dicopac kits. Discussions on possible alternative sources of intrinsic factor are continuing. Material sourced from hog produces an ethical dilemma for Muslim and Jewish patients. No material with a UK product licence has been identified. If such sources of intrinsic factor are to be used, the responsibility for their use rests with the clinician, who must be made aware of the situation. The group is to feed in comments to BNMS council to see if there is any mechanism of resolving this unsatisfactory situation.
Radiopharmacy audit document. This has now been incorporated into the BNMS organisational audit of nuclear medicine departments. The revised version is to be posted on the group's website : (www.ukrg.org.uk). The website is continuing to develop and has links to other relevant websites. If you haven't already visited it, perhaps it would be worthwhile.
Radpharm@egroups.com The discussion group seems to be attracting interesting topics. For subscription information, contact Steve Mather : mather@icrf.icnet.uk
Any comments or feedback always welcome. Please contact the newsletter editor
Stuart Hesslewood (s.r.hesslewood@aston.ac.uk)