Vein tubes 'fitted needlessly'

[Admin]

A third of patients have unnecessary tubes inserted into veins when they are in hospital, pharmacists have warned.

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[yazoo]

I think all medics would agree with the results and the need to think before inserting a cannula. However, lots of patients have them inserted long before ever seeing a Dr. This is part of the "stream-lining" of the NHS - allocating tasks to appropriately qualified members of the team e.g. the HCA trained in cannulation. But if a cannula is a medical decision (and it really should be made by someone qualified in clinical assessment - some NPs would also be able to do this in certain cases), should medics not be making the decision?

Dr Yash Kumarasamy... said: "We would like to see the introduction of a formal procedure under which hospital pharmacists review patients and their medications and make recommendations to the treatment team about whether or not a cannula is needed."

This would require pharmacist assessment in tandem with medical assessment at admission. How likely is that? Employing load of extra pharmacists to work out of hours... Because the admissions unit works 24 hours, and the patient will already have a cannula by time of review by the pharmacist - ususally after the patient has been assessed, admitted and treatment initiated.

What might be useful would be some sort of trial to see how much impact "pharmacists review patients and their medications" had on physician selection of drugs specifically in relation to cannulation rates. To introduce any such scheme otherwise (without evidence) would be just typical of the NHS.