Pharmacists in Care Homes Plan?

Response to Government Announcement re Pharmacists in Care Homes.

Today The Government announced its measures regarding the misuse of drugs in care homes https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/15/pharmacists-ordered-do-checks-care-homes-amid-fears-elderly/

Compassion in Care was the Charity that represented the family of Audrey Ford, at a Coroner’s inquest. We gathered and presented all the available international research on the use of antipsychotics on elderly people. We asked the Inquest one question,
Given this evidence could they discount the drugs as a contributory factor to her death. The coroner concluded they could not discount this evidence and therefore an open verdict was recorded on those grounds. The first ever.

This problem has persisted because the Government have refused to address the true underlying issues.
The motivation for obtaining sedative drugs is that people who are doped need very little care and attention.
It is so easy to obtain these drugs by just recording on a chart that someone is aggressive and the only way to check if these drugs are justified would be to send a pharmacist to look at people’s behaviour for two weeks and then check the medication paperwork, merely checking the paperwork will not address this.
The other issue raised by this latest Government plan, is that it relies on evidence such as a pharmacist asking people about their medication.
Our view is that those most at risk from medication misuse and abuse are those very people who are unable to speak, those with dementia who are more likely to be needlessly doped.
Also asking the very staff who justified the use of the drugs in order to obtain them will always get a very predictable response which is not a credible source of evidence.

We have seen what happens to those who are more likely to report concerns around these issues, Whistle-blowers. If the Government truly want to put things right then all they need do is implement Edna’s Law.
Edna suffered being doped with antipsychotics in lethal doses she was not even prescribed, we have the paperwork to prove this, but having absolute proof and bearing witness is not enough and until it is enough to warrant an inquiry nothing will change.

I featured in an interview today on BBC Holding Back the Years which I will respond to shortly but I noted that it included a case where a staff member informs a family member that drugs were not being administered to their mother.
I wonder what happened to that member of Staff as a consequence.
This question was not asked.

Eileen Chubb