This will enable any suitable product to be dispensed, thereby saving delay to the patient and sometimes expense to the health service. The BNF team are grateful for the support and access to inhouse expertise at Pharmaceutical Press and acknowledge the assistance of K. When dispensing liquid preparations, a sugar-free preparation should always be used in preference to one containing sugar. Oral or enteral syringes should be clearly labelled ‘Oral’ or ‘Enteral’ in a large font size; it is the healthcare practitioner’s responsibility to label the syringe with this information if the manufacturer has not done so.

Polyoxyl castor oils, used as vehicles in intravenous injections, have been associated with severe anaphylactoid reactions. Preparations containing hydrogenated glucose syrup, mannitol, maltitol, sorbitol, or xylitol are also marked ‘sugar-free’ since there is evidence that they do not cause dental caries. It is not possible to keep abreast of all of the generic products available on the UK market, and so this information serves as a reminder to the healthcare professional that, if the presence of a particular excipient is of concern, they should check the product literature for the particular product being prescribed or dispensed.

Many of the non-proprietary titles used in this book are titles of monographs in the European Pharmacopoeia, British Pharmacopoeia, or British Pharmaceutical Codex 1973. If necessary, new text is drafted and discussed with expert advisers and the Joint Formulary Committee. Indication and dose User feedback has highlighted that one of the main uses of the BNF is identifying indications and doses of drugs.

Changes, provides a list of significant changes, dose changes, classification changes, new names, and new preparations that have been incorporated into the BNF, as well as a list of preparations that have been discontinued and removed from the BNF. Important To avoid inadvertent intravenous administration of oral liquid medicines, only an appropriate oral or enteral syringe should be used to measure an oral liquid medicine (if a medicine spoon or graduated measure cannot be used); these syringes should not be compatible with intravenous or other parenteral devices. The prescriber and the patient should agree on the health outcomes that the patient desires and on the strategy for achieving them. Biological medicines Biological medicines are medicines that are made by or derived from a biological source using biotechnology processes, such as recombinant DNA technology. The index also includes the names of branded medicines and other topics of relevance, such as abbreviations, guidance sections, tables, and images.The doctor’s surgery address, reference number, and Primary Care Trust (PCT, Health Board in Scotland, Local Health Board in Wales) are also necessary. Joint Formulary Committee The Joint Formulary Committee (JFC) is responsible for the content of the BNF. Automatic substitution of brands at the point of dispensing is not appropriate for biological medicines.

Changes listed online are cumulative (from one print edition to the next), and can be printed off each month to show the main changes since the last print edition as an aide memoire for those using print copies. This is particularly useful where occasionally, due to differences in therapeutic use, the drug monograph may not directly follow the drug class monograph (e.

The BNF provides up-to-date guidance on prescribing, dispensing, and administering medicines, plus legal and professional guidelines. Specialised commissioning decisions NHS England develops specialised commissioning policies that define access to specialised services for particular groups of patients to ensure consistency in access to treatments nationwide.