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Written by AlisonFreemantle on Friday 10th November 2023
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) issued a medicine supply notification in October
It is important patients do not go without their diuretic if they are prescribed this regularly.
In order to achieve this, GP practice teams should be pro-actively switching patients to an alternative (furosemide in the majority of cases). There should be enough Furosemide stock to support this swap.
If you have stock remaining of Bumetanide please keep this for patients on higher doses (more than 2mg OD) or for those patients who cannot tolerate Furosemide.
Any scripts for Bumetanide should be referred back to the GP for a pro-active switch BEFORE the patient runs out.
Hopefully GPs are actively switching patients, but there are always some that fall through the cracks. It’s around 80 patients per GP practice that are affected.
ACTION: If you see any scripts for Bumetanide, contact the GP surgery as soon as possible to request and alternative script.
Medicine Supply Notification Details
Tier 3 – high impact
Use of unlicensed products
The following specialist importers have confirmed they can source unlicensed Bumetanide 1mg and 5mg tablets (please note there may be other companies that can also source supplies):
Prescribing requirements for unlicensed products
If prescribers cannot select the unlicensed product on their prescribing systems, an EPS prescription for the unlicensed product cannot be issued.
Where a prescriber wishes to prescribe a specially manufactured or imported product, an FP10 paper prescription should be issued as ‘Bumetanide 1mg or 5mg tablets (Special Order)‘ and endorsed by the pharmacy as a non-Part VIIIB special with the following information:
Supporting information: