1.11 Stoma care

The Sussex Stoma Care Accessories Formulary is not retrospective.

There will be some patients on a named patient basis that will require products outside of the formulary to manage complex problems or sensitivity to product. If a patient is requesting items which they have not been prescribed before or you have concerns, please contact your patient's Stoma Care Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) for further advice and guidance. See Sussex stoma nurse contact details in Stoma info 1.

• All prescriptions for stoma appliances and accessories should be issued on a monthly basis and in line with local prescribing guidelines.
• Dispensing appliance contractors (DACs) must not supply appliances direct to the patient before the DAC has received a prescription from the prescriber. Retrospective prescribing is a breach in terms of service and may lead to medico-legal issues.
• If over-ordering is noted, patients should be referred to their stoma care nurse for assessment.
  Repeat prescriptions should be checked thoroughly with the patient to ensure accessory products are still required or if quantities can be reduced. More info can be found in Stoma info 3.
• New appliance or accessory requests must be approved by a stoma care nurse before being prescribed.
  Patients who request items from the list of items that should not be routinely prescribed must be referred to a stoma nurse to determine if an item is appropriate to be issued.
• Patients will be followed up and reviewed regularly by a stoma care nurse for the first year after surgery. After the first year, patients can call in/be referred to the stoma care CNS as required.
• Once a patient’s stoma is ‘closed’, all stoma products and appliances should be removed from acute and repeat.

“Patient guidance on ordering stoma products” can be found in Stoma info 2.

A Sussex stoma care accessory formulary implementation guide (Stoma info 4) has been developed for use in primary care, providing guidance relating to issuing prescriptions for stoma products / accessories.

Retrospective prescriptions

Dispensing appliance contractors (DACs) must not supply appliances direct to the patient before the prescriber has issued a prescription. Retrospective prescribing is a breach in terms of service and may lead to medico-legal issues.