Review of Non-Formulary Medicine Requests over the Christmas Period

December 21, 2023

The Formulary and Therapeutics Group (FTG) team will be reviewing urgent non-formulary requests over the Christmas period and request forms should continue to be filled in. However, there may be a delay in processing of routine requests over weekend and Bank Holiday periods. When initiating a new medicine please therefore make every effort to use a formulary option, to prevent delays in patients receiving treatment.

The local SWB formulary is contained within the BNF and can be found on Connect –  https://connect2.swbh.nhs.uk/bnf/ Formularies across the Black Country are currently being aligned, so there have been substantial changes with a number of drugs added to the formulary within the Gastro, Cardio, Respiratory, Infections and Endocrine chapters. It is therefore worth checking the BNF for updates to see whether a form is still required, to minimise unnecessary requests.

Please note that patients admitted on their own regular medication that is not on the formulary at SWB do not need a request form completed.

See below for advice on how to direct your queries for urgent non-formulary requests that cannot wait until regular working hours.