A new handbook on children’s medicines, the British National Formulary for Children (BNFC), has been launched with an online version www.bnfc.nhs.uk free of charge to anyone in England.
Its publishers hope NHS staff in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland will also soon have access.
The health departments in all four countries have arranged for doctors and others who prescribe medicines to children to receive a paper version of the reference manual.
The handbook is described as the first comprehensive information resource on medicines for children and covers newborn babies to 18-year olds.
The guide aims to provide more specialist information than that available its sister publication, the BNF.
Dr George Rylance, a member of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health who chaired the BNFC formulary committee, commented: “When treating children, dosages must be tailored for each child, calculated by weight and age. Until now the information doctors needed to do this was not easily or readily available when they needed it – during a consultation for instance.”
Dr Rylance said the handbook will include information to help doctors managing children with complicated or more serious conditions where prescribers may need to use drugs tested in adults which have not been specifically licensed for children (off-label prescribing) or which are not routinely available (unlicensed prescribing).
He added: “It’s a great step forward for children’s medicine. For the first time, all doctors will have the latest advice at their fingertips.”
The online and paper versions of the BNFC include identical information including a range of guidance from choosing the best available drug to specific doses and formulations. The paper version will be published annually but the online version will be updated more regularly.
However the publishers of the BNFC so far only have a contract for the online version in England.
Robin Glasspool, business development manager for the BNFC, believes the online version will be available in the other three home countries soon.
He told EHI Primary Care: “Meetings are being organised with the other devolved nations to provide access to them. We just need to understand their requirements and although Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland don’t have access now I think it will be a very short term issue.”
In England NHS staff can access the site with an Athens password and the public can also access the same content but must register. Anyone outside England will be directed to http://bnfc.org and at the moment will be offered access via a subscription based service. A CD-ROM version is also available.
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