Drug Alerts & Recalls
Drug Alerts & Recalls
What Are Drug Alerts & Recalls?
How Will This Help My Practice?
Enhances patient safety and safeguarding
Identifying which patients may be at risk and providing appropriate care.
Managing practice communications
If required, our pharmacists distribute recall letters and messages.
Significantly reduces medication risks
From any errors, unsafe drug continuation, and delayed responses.
Supports medicines safety governance
Providing full coding, clear governance & evidence of medicine safety.
Utilises practice-approved risk stratification systems
Including Eclipse Live, Ardens, and SystmOne
Issuing appropriate medication changes
As aligned with MHRA and ICB guidance.
“The team is consistently reliable. Phones are always answered and emails come back the same day. It’s made a real difference to how we run our medication reviews.”
“Fast email replies and clinical input whenever we need it. They picked up our medicines work seamlessly and delivered from day one.”
“Excellent service from start to finish. Easy to reach, quick to reply, and they clearly know NHS workflows inside out. We couldn’t recommend the team more highly.”
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Frequently Asked Questions
How are CAS and MHRA drug alerts monitored?
Our team of virtual pharmacists complete the monitoring of MHRA and CAS alerts routinely. These frequent checks involve the review of:
- The active substance or batch affected
- Required clinical actions
- Supply issues or product switches
- Timeframes for compliance
- Any required monitoring or appropriate follow-up
- Risks to vulnerable or high-risk patients
All outcomes from this monitoring are documented and auditable.
How do your pharmacists use Eclipse Live to support MHRA drug alerts?
We utilise the Eclipse Live service to support medication safety. This software carefully identifies patients at increased risk of medicine-related harm as a result of drug alerts. This enables targeted pharmacist reviews and timely action to reduce avoidable risk.
Following MHRA drug alerts and recalls, our remote pharmacists will use Eclipse Live within GP clinical systems to automatically filter the patient list down to the specific individuals at risk based on that alert. They will then review those patient notes and take action.
This is a much simpler and quicker alternative to manually filtering through patient lists, ensuring that the drug alert is swiftly and efficiently actioned to protect patient safety.
What actions are taken when patients are identified as affected from these drug alerts?
Our pharmacists review the specific alert, assess affected patients where needed, and document the action taken. Stopping or switching treatment, contacting patients and arranging monitoring depend on the alert’s instructions and patient-specific clinical assessment.
How do you identify which patients are affected?
Our pharmacists work with your practice-approved risk management and safety systems to search for affected patients.
Our team utilises the likes of Ardens’ templates and structured searches, EMIS, SystmOne, Vision and Medicus advanced reporting, ICB-provided medicines safety tools, as well as manual cross-checks for medicines that are not covered by any structured templates.
Our team of pharmacists also utilise Eclipse Live within the likes of EMIS to easily filter through patient lists and automatically identify those at increased risk of medicine-related harm.
How do you ensure these actions meet CQC expectations?
When drug alerts and recalls are issued, our pharmacists accurately and efficiently record, action, evidence, audit, monitor and report back to the practice. This supports the practice’s review of medicines safety systems, governance and outstanding actions.
Can you handle batch recalls and safety-critical switches?
Yes. Our pharmacists manage both, checking formulation accuracy, dose equivalence and alignment with local formularies.
