The most recent meeting of the group took place in London. Items of general interest discussed included the following.
NHS Plan. Although there is little direct comment on hospital pharmacy and nothing specifically on radiopharmacy, the group is intending to produce a report, similar to those already produced by the NHS QC committee and the Medicines Information Group in order to raise the profile of specialists. The questions of future funding of services and succession planning were also raised in view of the difficulty in attracting candidates for advertised posts.
Radiopharmacy Workshop 2001 Following the success of previous workshops, the group is organising another on January 12th 2000 at the Beeches College, Birmingham. The planned programme includes the practicalities of preparation, distribution and handling of F18 FDG and syndicate sessions on what practical skills need to be acquired by radiopharmacy staff to meet the requirements of IR(ME)R. Booking forms and details will be circulated shortly. Last year’s workshop was oversubscribed, so early application might be wise.
Training / continuous professional development. The Radiopharmacy module of the PTQA course has now been completed and marking of examinations and course work assessment has been completed. Feedback of results to participants will be forthcoming from Leeds. Comments from students included adverse criticism of accommodation arrangements in London. Although the quality of teaching was generally praised, some of the students found the module “hard-going”. Further cycles of the PTQA will take place, but a change will be that Radiopharmacy will become an option rather than a core module. In collaboration with King’s College, the group is considering how this will affect delivery of the course.
Contact with the College of Pharmacy Practice is to be made via TSET (Technical Services Education and Training)group to explore whether it could become a group of the college. Radiopharmacy by itself is probably not large enough to stand alone.
Nitrogen filled vialsFollowing the dramatic price increase in the Nycomed Amersham product, increasing experience has been gained with the Adelphi vials. Comments have been generally favourable, although problems such as a slight overpressure, difficulty in removing the white plastic cap and leakage have been reported. There was an as yet unsubstantiated feeling that adsorption of tetrofosmin on to the Adelphi vials was lower than on to the Amersham vials. The continued availability of nitrogen filled vials was considered to be an important requirement for radiopharmacy. All comments about vials, from whatever source, would be welcome so that the group can monitor the situation and raise the matter with manufacturers. Please e-mail or write to Stuart Hesslewood.
Medical and Dental Guidance Notes The group submitted comments on this consultation document. Important topics were the problems of assessing the dose constraint of 1mSv to the fetus, the siting of sinks in controlled areas and the suggestion that despatchers of radioactive products need to inform the intended recipients that the products are on their way. Appendix 9 of the document, which puts forward suggestions for professional qualifications and training requirements for practitioners and operators, was thought to be particularly troublesome. A copy of the submission is available, but you will also need access to the original document. Initial feed back is that the comments have been well received and will be taken into account when the document is revised.
Patient Group DirectionsYou will have seen HSC2000/026 which specifically states that supply and administration of radiopharmacuticals is not included within this Guidance since the process is already covered by the MARS regulations. The group is following up the question of how non radioactive POMs e.g. frusemide and adenosine used in nuclear medicine procedures are to treated.
New web-site Have you seen the group’s recently introduced web site at www.ukrg.org.uk? It contains lots of helpful information and will be developed further over the coming months. Congratulations to Bev Ellis for masterminding the development.
New formulation of Hespan You may be aware that the original formulation from Geistlich has been discontinued. The alternative, HAES –Steril 6% has been reported to be less effective in inducing erythrocyte sedimentation during white cell labelling procedures. It may be related to differences in molecular weight. We would be interested to hear if anyone has experienced such problems, or indeed has come up with a solution.
Preparation of MAG 3 with saline from plastic ampoules You may recall that in 1996 Mallinckrodt advised that saline used should be obtained from glass ampoule since problems with radiochemical purity had been identified when saline from one brand of plastic ampoules was used. Has anybody experienced any problems recently when using plastic ampoules ? Again we would be interested to hear.
Radiopharmacy Workshop Beeches College Birmingham January 12th 2001
BNMS Annual Meeting Brighton April 9th – 11th 2001
Tenth European Symposium on Radiopharmacy and Radiopharmaceuticals Granada Mayth –8th 2001Information at www.molypharma.es
The next meeting of the group is scheduled for January 2001. All views, comments would be welcome.
Please contact any group member.
Stuart Hesslewood, Newsletter editor
Phone 0121 507 4045
Fax 0121 507 5223
e-mail: s.r.hesslewood@aston.ac.uk