PublicationsGuidelines & Standards

BOPA will set the professional standards for the practice of oncology pharmacy in the UK. Our practice guidelines and standard documents can be found here.

Verification Standards (October 2018)

The BOPA Standards for Clinical Pharmacy Verification of cancer medicine prescriptions describes the key steps a pharmacist must take when checking prescriptions for anticancer medicines. The standards have been reviewed and updated for 2018 by the BOPA Guidelines, Advocacy and Publications Sub Committee.

The revised 2018 guidelines take account of the use of electronic prescribing systems and incorporate detailed clinical guideance to support each step of the verification standards as an appendix.

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BOPA Non Medical Prescribing Guidelines ( August 2018)

BOPA supports the work and development of pharmacists as non-medical prescribers (NMPs) working as part of the cancer services team.

We have undertaken an update of the existing NMP guidelines to reflect the updated competencies for prescribing SACT included in the latest Medical Royal Colleague curriculums. The document has been updated to his ensures pharmacist NMPs are working to same standards as medical colleagues

The update has been undertaken by the Guidelines Advocacy and Publications (GAP) subcommittee.

The BOPA Executive wishes to note that the document has been issued with a short (1 year) review date, as it is acknowledged that there may be further fundamental changes to the competencies as the Education and Training Subcommittee develops its NMP strategy. This would then require consultation with the full BOPA membership.

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BOPA Chemotherapy e-Prescribing Standards (October 2015)

The BOPA Standards for Reducing Risks Associated with e-Prescribing Systems for Chemotherapy outlines steps that can be considered to be best practice in reducing the risks of errors arising from the introduction and use of e-prescribing systems for chemotherapy.

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Medicines Optimisation, Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Workforce Plan (Jan 2015)

The requirement for pharmacist verification of chemotherapy prescribing is a mandatory component of the anti-cancer medicines. In addition to minimise the risk of adverse treatment outcomes (increased toxicity or decreased efficacy) due to co-morbidity, complementary or alternative medicines it is essential that all patients have their medication history assessed in accordance with NICE guidance on medicines reconciliation.

These BOPA Worforce Plan wil help service providers and commissioners plan the Oncology pharmacy service Requirements.

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