The National Cancer Control Program (NCCP) is seeking expressions of interest from hospital pharmacists working in aseptic compounding units in joining a working group to develop a capacity planning tool.
In 2014 the NCCP published the findings of an Oncology Medication and Safety review which was conducted across the 26 hospitals in Ireland involved in the administration of systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) in adults and children. A key recommendation from this review was to develop: “A capacity-planning model to support hospitals in their local service planning with regard to day ward activity and staffing requirements”
Capacity planning is used to examine volume and complexity of workload, time available and the staff and facilities required. It can be used as a tool to plan chemotherapy services in order to measure the growing demand for SACT using finite resources.
In line with this, the NCCP has established a working group to develop a National Capacity Planning Model for pharmacy aseptic compounding units providing SACT in the hospital setting. This would be an initial step towards an overall capacity-planning model as outlined in recommendation 17 of the NCCP Oncology Medication Safety Review.
The appointment term will be approximately six months, with three to four meetings being held during this time. All meetings can be facilitated by teleconference. The working group may be reconvened from time to time to facilitate refreshing of the documentation.
Queries relating to this EoI should be addressed in writing to: oncologydrugs@cancercontrol.ie. The closing date is April 22nd 2016. It is hoped that the first meeting of the Steering group will take place in May 2016.
In addition, the NCCP is seeking feedback on draft dose banding documents which include:
- Dose banding tables
- Dose banding guidance document
- Dose banding implementation & FAQ document
These will be issued to hospital CEOs on April 11th for distribution to staff working in the provision of cancer care services. Additional copies of the documentation and the feedback form can be requested from oncologydrugs@cancercontrol.ie