Pharmacy Department - Northampton General Hospital

Aseptic Services

Function

The Aseptic Services Unit (ASU) is located within the Pharmacy. We prepare and supply sterile medicinal products for intravenous use, both for the Trust and for other hospitals in the County. Products made by ASU include intravenous chemotherapy + nutrition infusions. In each case, commercially available sterile solutions and products are manipulated to produce a final product for administration to the patient.

Environment

To ensure all final products are sterile, the preparation is undertaken by trained operators in a high grade cleanroom environment. Within these rooms, the manipulations are carried out in dedicated workstations providing the cleanest possible standard of air. Both the workstations and rooms are frequently monitored by the Quality Assurance Department to ensure that maximum levels of contamination by both particles and micro-organisms are not exceeded. The technique of each operator is also regularly tested by simulating the preparation of each product using a nutrient broth which can be incubated and examined for contamination.

Medicines Control Agency

We have a licence issued by the Medicines Control Agency (Department of Health). This requires the Unit to be inspected every two years to ensure that minimum standards are being maintained. Holding such a licence allows us to manufacture products for use by hospitals outside of the Trust boundaries.

Products Prepared

We prepare an average of 1200 chemotherapy injections and infusions each month. These are predominantly supplied for use in the hospital’s Oncology & Haematology Out-patient Department and on the Oncology Ward. 150 intravenous nutrition infusions are also prepared each month, around half of which are for premature babies and the other half for adult patients on the Surgical and ITU Wards. Some of these infusions are also prepared for patients at Milton Keynes and Kettering General Hospitals.

Staffing

To provide this service, the staff employed currently consists of:

1 Principal Pharmacist (Grade F)
2 Senior Pharmacists (Grade D)
1 Chief Technician (MTO4)
2 Senior Pharmacy Technicians (MTO3)
3 Pharmacy Technicians (MTO2)
2 Assistant Technical Officers

Facilities

ASU has undertaken major re-building work, and was re-opened in July 2000. This has provided us with state of the art cleanroom facilities and technology.

If you would like any further information contact Elaine Davies, Principal Pharmacist , Aseptic Services on 01604 545703 or email Elaine.Davies@ngh.nhs.uk