The October meeting of theUK Radiopharmacy Group was held at Guy's Hospital, London. Items of general interest are summarised below.
UK Radiopharmacy Workshop The annual Bournville workshop will be held on Friday 7 January 2005 and an interesting and varied programme has been assembled. Topics include the clinical trials directive (see below), radiation protection equipment, the new Manchester Molecular Imaging Centre, and sentinel node imaging. The afternoon will consist of "controversy corners" addressing various practical topics in current radiopharmacy practice. Registration information is available from the UKRG web site. Don't miss it!
Postgraduate course in radiopharmacy The King's course is being held during the week of 10-14 January 2005. Information and application forms are available on the UKRG web site.
Agenda for Change There is still no progress at the "early" implementer site where this meeting was held. However, job evaluations for various heads of service in other specialties are now on the AfC web site and are generally matched at 8D. In a related issue, the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer has proposed the creation of consultant grade pharmacist posts.
Registration of technicians and technologists Two deadlines are approaching. As of 01 January 2005, pharmacy ATOs will require at least NVQ Level 2, though registration before that deadline is possible under a grandparent clause. From the end of 2005, pharmacy technicians will be regulated by the RPSGB. The alternative for clinical technologists is to join the voluntary register under the grandparent clause which expires 31 December 2004. Registration via the Health Professions Council after that date will only be open to those who hold a degree (NVQ Level 3 will not be considered adequate for state registration as a clinical technologist). This duality may have implications for grading of technical staff under AfC.
Clinical trials directive/Investigative Medicinal Product manufacturing licence Confusion reigns supreme. The North West Clinical Trials Focus Group has developed a set of definitions relating to various IMP manufacturing operations and sent it to the MHRA for comment. It is hoped that the situation will become clearer when Bronwyn Phillips of the MHRA speaks at the Bournville workshop.
51Cr-EDTA issues The UKRG continues to liase with the MHRA over concerns about maintenance of sterility in vials of 51Cr-EDTA with certain clincal practices. This will be discussed again in our January meeting and also in the Bournville workshop.
Out of hours deliveries Concerns about the security of out of hours deliveries are ongoing. A position statement from the British Nuclear Medicine Society will be published shortly in Nuclear Medicine Communications.
Radiopharmacy management software The current version of the Veenstra system, to be distributed by Bright Technologies, was demonstrated at the EANM congress in Helsinki. The package will be sold in modules; e.g. a customer hospital will only need a basic module whereas the central radiopharmacy will require the whole nine yards. In a separate initiative, several hospitals have been promised radiopharmacy software as part of a radiology information system but nothing has been forthcoming as of yet.
PET consultation document The Department of Health issued a draft document entitled "A framework for the development of positron emission tomography (PET) services in England" in July. The UKRG prepared a response for the October deadline, as did other groups such as BNMS, IPEM, and BIR. The DoH proposal seems highly dependent upon commercial cyclotrons and PET scanners, whereas we pointed out the importance of NHS access, particularly for research and development. We also felt there was inadequate emphasis placed on training, particularly of radiopharmaceutical scientists.
Manufactured specials for radiopharmacy The UKRG has been working to ensure that no specials essential for radiopharmacy are lost during the rationalisation of production units within the NHS and to ensure continuity of supply as units are being modernised. Specials cannot be advertised but a list of products made by an individual unit can be obtained from that unit or from regional production managers.
New book Pharmaceutical Isolators: A guide to their application, design and control. Edited by B Midcalf, WM Phillips, JS Neiger, and TJ Coles. Pharmaceutical Press, London, ISBN 0-85369-573-3, £29.95 (www.pharmpress.com). Highly recommended!
Unusual biodistributions The latest compilation is now available and should be enclosed with this newsletter for those of you receiving it in hard copy. All are reminded that products defects should be reported to the Defective Medicines Reporting Centre at Market Towers.
Cholecis It is reported that Schering is withdrawing Cholecis from the market in December and there is no other licenced IDA derivative available in the UK. The UKRG is looking into arrangements for bulk importing of a suitable alternative to avoid the necessity of each Trust applying for a wholesale dealers licence.
Radiochemical purity testing for 99mTc-IDAs Notwithstanding the previous item, a solid phase extraction cartridge (e.g. Sep-Pak) method for IDAs has been published recently: Billinghurst MW, Eckert K, Mang'era K. Alternative quality control for technetium-99m IDA complexes. Appl Radiat Isot 2004; 61: 1151-5.
British Nuclear Cardiology Society The annual conference is to be held 7 December 2004 at the National Heart and Lung Institute, London (www.bncs.org.uk).
In the news: Sentinel node imaging In the last newsletter I stated that the results of the ALMANAC study had been published in the Lancet in June. Apologies to those of you who tried to hunt it down. The results were actually released at a news conference in conjunction with a presentation on the study at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in New Orleans. The story is on the Guardian web site for 5 June 2004. Don't know where I got the idea it had been in the Lancet!
Membership news The committee congratulated Jilly Croasdale on the recent birth of her son and on her new appointment at City Hospital Birmingham.
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