Checking Medicines Information enquiries completed by medicines
information staff
The purpose of this document is to provide guidance on the internal checking of medicines
information (MI) enquiry work that should be carried out for MI services based at Northwick Park
Hospital. The document covers the checking that should be performed for enquiries undertaken by
pharmacists in training or pre-registration pharmacists; gives examples of high risk enquiry
scenarios that should always be checked by another member of the MI team; and recommends a
process for checking all responses to complex enquiries that have a higher risk associated with
them.
Background
MI enquiries completed at the London Medicines Information Service (LMIS) - Northwick Park
conform to the UKMi quality assurance standards. The standards relating to enquiry answering cover
four main areas of the enquiry answering process: documentation, analysis, coverage and answer.
The standards can be found in the folder on the Z drive\\NWLHSERV052\Drug Info\Medicines
Info\QA\Internal QA reports NPH&LMIS\Standard 4.
The following sets of guidance notes are to be used by the Band 8 pharmacists and those Band 7
pharmacists (who have successfully completed the enquiry double checking assessment and the
internal peer review assessment) working in MI when checking enquiries:
A) Completed by a pharmacist in training or a pre-registration pharmacist or
B) High risk enquiry types (as defined later) that require a second check
The use of these guidance notes will ensure that there is consistency in checking by senior
pharmacists.
Guidance Notes
A) Checklist for checking enquiries undertaken by a pharmacist in training or a pre-registration
pharmacist:
The following should be checked:
Documentation
Full name of enquirer spelt correctly (even if you
know who they are)
Contact details of enquirer (contact number &
location).
N.B. full postal address may be needed for
enquiries to enable follow-up
Completed (√ / X)
Clear explanation of the question. There must be
a clear question that can be understood and is
unambiguous.
Patient details (if patient specific enquiry)
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
Identifier – name, initials, hospital
number, etc

Date of Birth

Weight (if paediatric or if needed for
calculations)

Blood results (if relevant to enquiry)

Past Medical History and Drug History
(including pregnancy/breast feeding
status, if relevant to enquiry)
NB If it is a general enquiry (i.e. no patient
involved) this should be stated and the ‘patient
centred enquiry’ category un-ticked
Control M function has been used for all the
resources added, when colleagues have been
contacted, information requested and awaited
etc. It should be clear where the enquiry is up to
and who has done what in the enquiry
The appropriate enquiry type/category and
keywords have been selected
Names of all resources used should be stated
clearly and the following documented:




Books/Journals: edition number/ date &
page numbers.
Databases: dates searched/accessed/
search terms used/date of last revision
or update where available
People: full name and title of people
spoken to where possible e.g. company
Medical Information Departments/
specialist doctors/ pharmacists plus
contact number or email address
Other electronic resources e.g. websites:
name and/or full address of website(s)
used/date accessed/search terms used.
All resources used must be documented, if
nothing of relevance was found in a resource
then this should be stated
A summary of the relevant information for each
resource is presented in a concise manner.
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Spelling and typos, in particular in the question
field, answer field and in the title field
A clear summary of answer to be given should be
present
Analysis
Is it clear that the pharmacist answering the
enquiry has fully understood the question that is
being asked?
Have all the relevant issues (whether the
enquirer asked about them or not) been
addressed?i.e. have all potential follow-on
questions been considered and addressed?
Coverage
Have all the appropriate resources required for
the type of enquiry and level of enquiry been
used? (based on the Enquiry Answering
Guidelines for NPH – they can be found in the
folder on the Z drive/Northwick Park/Training &
Competencies/)
Have the sources been used in a logical
systematic fashion?
Have the resources been used correctly? (you
only need check the information directly in the
resources if you have concerns that the trainee
has not used the resources correctly e.g.
Medline/Embase searches or the right
section/monograph in a database)
Answer
A clear summary of answer to be given should be
present
Have all the enquirer’s questions been answered
and all the issues addressed? Or has an answer
been written that doesn’t actually answer the
original question?
Has the information found in the research been
appropriately evaluated?
Has practical advice appropriate to the needs of
the enquirer been given?
Is the level of detail sufficient?
Is the method of communication appropriate?
e.g. phone call, letter, email
If the answer is to be given in a written format:
 Is the answer understandable? (is the
advice being given clear and not just
consist of words/phrases that have been
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



copied from the resources without any
explanation or understanding)
Has the main point(s) of the answer
been summed up in one short
paragraph?
Check for spelling and grammar
Layout
References (if applicable)
NB
1) Any comments, feedback or changes that you have about the enquiry should be documented in
the enquiry using the control M function so there is a clear audit trail
2) If changes or additions are required to be made to resources or the answer, the trainee should
add this information in below or as a new resource using the control M function. They should not
overwrite the information in the resources or the answer that is already there, this is to ensure a
clear audit trail.
3) Once an enquiry has been checked and is ready to give out, the checking pharmacist should
document this in the enquiry field using the control M function. Only enquiry answers that have
been fully checked and have been documented as such by the checking pharmacist should be given
out.
4) The decision to remove trainee status for pharmacists will be at the line manager/directors
discretion based on their performance management. This decision will be communicated to the rest
of the team
B) High risk enquiry types that require a second check (all MI pharmacists)
There are certain types of enquiries or parts of enquiries that by their very nature, complexity or
depending on the grade of staff completing them carry an inherent high risk and therefore will
require a second check by another pharmacist within the MI team. This checking process applies to
all pharmacists who are not considered ‘in training’.
NB This checking process does not apply to enquiries completed by pre-registration pharmacists or
pharmacists in training – see section (A) above for guidance on how to check their enquiries
The following is a list of high risk enquiry types that require a second check. Where a second check is
only required for specific grades of staff this is stated and the type of second check that is required is
also stated.
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Enquiry Type
Grade of staff completing the
enquiry for whom a second
check must be given
Type of second check required
Written answers
All members of the team
Proof read – read the answer
and check:

that the
advice/information
being given is clear,

if it answers all the
enquirer’s
questions/issues,

for any typos,

if it is referenced
correctly
that all follow on issues have
been addressedFull check (as
under section A)
NPH Band 6 and 7, LMIS Band 7
Pharmacists
Calculations
All members of the team
Check the calculation is correct,
ensure the correct formula has
been used
Pregnancy/Breast Feeding
NPH Rotational Band 6 and 7
Pharmacists
Full Check (as under section A)
Level 3 enquiries –
NPH Rotational Band 6 and 7
Pharmacists
Full Check (as under section A)
New drugs
Complicated clinical patients
Very little published
information
LMIS Band 7 Pharmacists
All members of the team
Where there is a lot of
conflicting data
Complaints
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Answer impacts on a
population rather than
individual
Unlicensed drugs impacting on
NPH practice
NPH Rotational Band 6 and 7
Pharmacists
Literature Searches
LMIS Band 7 Pharmacists
Check the correct terms have
been searched, limits and
subheadings used and
combined in the right way
NPH Unlicensed/Off Label
Requests
All members of the team
Recommendation check by NPH
MI Manager or NPH Formulary
team
Individual Funding Requests
All members of the team
As per separate IFR procedure
Senior Pharmacists Checking Rota
The junior pharmacists within the MI department (NPH rotational Band 6, NPH rotational Band 7 and
LMIS Band 7 pharmacists) cover most of the enquiry answering sessions and therefore complete a
large majority of the enquiries. To accommodate the checking of their enquiries (as listed above in
section B), a Band 8 pharmacist is allocated to each day of the week (see below). On their allocated
day it is the Band 8’s responsibility to check any ‘high risk’ enquiries completed by other members of
the team. If the Band 8 is going to be absent they will have to organise cover from another Band 8 in
the team.
This does not apply to enquiries completed by pre- registration pharmacists.
Pharmacists in training will be clearly marked on the phone rota with a (T). They require a full check
on all their enquiries as listed under section A. If there is third pharmacist allocated to the phone
session on the rota they will be responsible for fully checking the pharmacist in training enquiries.
Where there is no third pharmacist on the rota it will be responsibility of the senior pharmacist
allocated to checking for that day, as per the rota below.
Day
Band 8
Pharmacist
Checking
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Helen
Varinder
Wynn
Sheena
Alex
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