The Hong Kong Hospital Authority recently introduced bar coding for drugs inventorising and management following public criticism after three unfortunate incidents of breach in standard drug safety norms. 

One of the incidents even resulted in death of several cancer patients by Rhizopus microsporus tainted Allopurinol – a drug for treating gout – produced by Europharm. According to Hospital Authority chief Shane Solomon, the authority will upgrade its pharmaceutical information technology systems by deploying bar coding. Bar coding will allow automatic check for medication errors, real-time drug tracking and tracing, and avoiding dispensing of expired items. “A drug quality assurance office is to be established to monitor quality and to oversee implementation of the above initiatives,” he said. “As the single largest purchaser of drug items in Hong Kong, the HA will actively participate in and contribute to the work of the government’s review committee on regulation of pharmaceutical products to safeguard the interests and medication safety of public hospital patients.” The authority is  also considering to introducing multi-source supply for high volume, high risk drugs to ensure sufficient back up and alternative supply source under emergency situation. The authority will also approach manufacturers to introduce microbiology testing as a prerequisite to procurement of high risk drugs and provisioning of batch release reports on delivery of drug products.  “Within HA, sample testing will be enhanced to include a wider range of drugs and microbiology testing based on risk levels,” he noted. The authority will also require suppliers to provide additional standard information for drug delivery documentation to enable more effective physical checking of goods received, the authority said. “In parallel, we will be working with the Department of Health to enhance the access to key additional registration details, including pack sizes to strengthen checking on regulatory compliance,” said Solomon.

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