Expired Products

The request was partially successful.

We are conducting research into the health economics' implications of expired equipment/drugs/consumables in the UK.

Medical products and devices all have an expiry date and thus cannot be used beyond this date. Examples are wide ranging including drugs, sterile gauze, central line sets, oxygen masks, endotracheal tubes, difficult airway equipment to name a few. Following expiry these items are discarded; resulting in a significant financial cost to NHS Trusts. Whilst some drugs to degrade with time, it is difficult to understand how a syringe can one day be sterile in its packaging and acceptable to use, and the next day not. We would like to know exactly how much medical equipment (including consumables and drugs) are discarded by your organisation every year (and each year since and including 2010) simply because of expiry/use by date. Please also detail the financial cost of this to your organisation. Please categorise these into consumables/equipment and drugs/infusions.

Please also detail any critical incidents logged at your organisation in the last 5 years relating to the use of expired equipment, and any directly attributable harm associated with this use.

Yours faithfully,

Dr D Williams
Prof Harish Vyas

Williams Matthew, East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust

3 Attachments

Ref: FOI/16/069

20 June 2016

Dear Mr Williams

Thank you for your e-mail dated 20 June 2016 requesting information about
expired products.

Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and will be answered within 20 working days.

If you have any queries about this request please do not hesitate to
contact me. 

Yours Sincerely

Matthew Williams

Description: cid:image005.png@01D0CAE2.B1559520
Description:
Description: Telephone: 0115 9193446
Description:
Description: hello my [1][email address]
name is
[2]www.emas.nhs.uk
Matthew Williams
Records Manager                         @EMASNHSTRUSTDescription:
Description: Description: Description:
East Midlands Ambulance Description: Description: Description:
Service NHS Trust Description: Description:
Nottinghamshire cid:image002.png@01CF367A.50F55880
Headquarters

Beechdale Road

Nottingham

NG8 3LL

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Williams Matthew, East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust

6 Attachments

Ref: FOI/16/069

18 July 2016

Dear Mr Williams

We are writing further to your e-mail dated 20 June 2016 requesting
information about expired products.

The questions you have raised along with their answers can be found below:

·         We would like to know exactly how much medical equipment
(including consumables and drugs) are discarded by your organisation every
year (and each year since and including 2010) simply because of expiry/use
by date.  Please also detail the financial cost of this to your
organisation and please categorise these into consumables/equipment and
drugs/infusions – We only hold information about expired drugs and
consumables from April 2014 onwards, but the two Spreadsheets attached
above provide the answers to these questions.

·         Please also detail any critical incidents logged at your
organisation in the last 5 years relating to the use of expired equipment,
and any directly attributable harm associated with this use – We can
confirm that there are no recorded Serious Incidents for the past five
years relating to the use of out of date equipment, consumables or drugs
at EMAS.  There are also no recorded incidents over the past five years
relating to out of date equipment or consumables being used with patients.
 There are however 10 incidents recorded since 2010 where out of date
drugs were used; each of the 10 cases resulted in no harm to the patient. 
All of the incidents were reported including how the error occurred,
action taken and recorded to ensure the product was not used again. 
Please note from 2010 to 2016 EMAS sent a response to 3,686,427 incidents,
and as such an incident like this took place on 0.000003% of the time.

Yours Sincerely

Matthew Williams

Notes:

We’re interested in your views on how we deal with Freedom of Information
requests and would welcome your feedback.  Please take a few moments to
complete our short questionnaire – available here at:
[1]http://www.emas.nhs.uk/freedom-of-inform....

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review.  Internal review requests should be
submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your
original letter and should be addressed to:

Matthew Williams, Records Manager, Information Governance and Compliance
Team, East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Nottinghamshire
Headquarters, Beechdale Road, Nottingham NG8 3LL.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:  Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF.

Description: cid:image005.png@01D0CAE2.B1559520
Description:
Description: Telephone: 0115 9193446
Description:
Description: hello my [2][email address]
name is
[3]www.emas.nhs.uk
Matthew Williams
Records Manager                         @EMASNHSTRUSTDescription:
Description: Description: Description:
East Midlands Ambulance Description: Description: Description:
Service NHS Trust Description: Description:
Nottinghamshire cid:image002.png@01CF367A.50F55880
Headquarters

Beechdale Road

Nottingham

NG8 3LL

From: Williams Matthew
Sent: 20 June 2016 13:33
To: '[FOI #340890 email]' <[FOI #340890 email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information Request - Expired Products

Ref: FOI/16/069

20 June 2016

Dear Mr Williams

Thank you for your e-mail dated 20 June 2016 requesting information about
expired products.

Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and will be answered within 20 working days.

If you have any queries about this request please do not hesitate to
contact me. 

Yours Sincerely

Matthew Williams

Description: cid:image005.png@01D0CAE2.B1559520
Description:
Description: Telephone: 0115 9193446
Description:
Description: hello my [4][email address]
name is
[5]www.emas.nhs.uk
Matthew Williams
Records Manager                         @EMASNHSTRUSTDescription:
Description: Description: Description:
East Midlands Ambulance Description: Description: Description:
Service NHS Trust Description: Description:
Nottinghamshire cid:image002.png@01CF367A.50F55880
Headquarters

Beechdale Road

Nottingham

NG8 3LL

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