Pharmacists

We are a team of specialist pharmacists and provide a daily clinical service to patients treated within the Paediatric and Adolescent Oncology and Haematology Unit.

A clinical pharmacist visits Wards L31, L32 and L33 on a daily basis from Monday to Friday. There is also a pharmacist in the Children’s Haematology and Oncology Day Unit each morning.

Our responsibilities include:

• Planning chemotherapy along with nursing and medical staff to ensure monitoring and blood tests are performed in advance of treatment
• Producing chemotherapy prescriptions on ‘Chemocare’; an electronic prescribing system and checking chemotherapy doses against protocols to ensure the correct treatment is given
• Ensuring chemotherapy is ready when it is needed by close liaison with the pharmacy aseptic unit. The aseptic unit prepares all intravenous chemotherapy and is released to the wards and clinic by specially trained pharmacists.
• Ensuring supportive care such as anti-sickness and antibiotic medications are prescribed appropriately
  • Validating all inpatient drug charts on a daily basis to ensure all drugs, doses and administration details are prescribed correctly
  • Advising medical staff on dose modifications or drug interactions where necessary
  • Discharge planning - to ensure where possible that all medication is ready in advance of discharge to avoid delays
  • We are involved with prescribing medicines, as most pharmacists in the team are independent prescribers
  • We are closely involved with Clinical Trials to ensure treatment is given and monitoring carried as per the trial protocol and that trial regulations are followed
  • Introduction of new medication into the trust by working with the Drugs and Therapeutics Committee
  • Providing specialist advice about medication to any members of the paediatric oncology team and to patients, parents or carers