Packages too alike
October 1, 2010
THE Canadian Society of
Hospital Pharmacists is urging the
country’s federal authority, Health
Canada, to instate regulations that
force drug companies to create
medication packaging that clearly
identifies medications and does
not look the same or similar to
other drug packages.
“If you ask any kind of front-line
nurse or pharmacist, they would
say ‘Gee, this isn’t rocket science,”
said Professor Neil MacKinnon
CSHP president.
“Why can’t they make labelling
clearer — put things in different
size fonts, in different colours?’,”
he added.
As part of its case the CSHP
cited the much publicised deaths
of two Canadians at a hospital six
years ago when the drug
potassium chloride was
administered to the patients
instead of sodium chloride because
their packs were so similar, and
more recently when actor Denis
Quaid’s newborn twins were given
a high dose of Heparin instead of
a low dose and nearly died
because the vials looked so similar.
“If the health care provider who is
using the [poorly labelled]
medication ... doesn’t play close
attention to what they’re grabbing,
there could be very serious
consequences,” said Myrella Roy,
the society’s executive director.
“You can put pressure on a
manufacturer [to change
packaging], but there is nobody
actually mandating a change,” she
added.
Roy did however note that the
Canadian Government and related
health organisations are currently
in the process of working out a
universal system of prescription
drug barcodes and electronic code
readers for healthcare
professionals, but added that due
to the expense and size of the
project it was unlikely to be
implemented for many years.
In the interim, Roy said, the
Canadian Society of Hospital
Pharmacists wants Health Canada
to set up a monitoring system
whereby drug labels and
packaging are checked prior to
their implementation to ensure
that similarities are weeded out
before they hit the shelves.
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