Cost of administering controlled drugs in a hospice ward.

A study was undertaken in 1995 to examine the time taken to administer Controlled Drugs (CDs) in one of the two seven-bedded wards in the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice (PPWH) in the course of one week. A stop watch was used to measure the time taken from the decision to give a CD until its administration was entered into the CD Register. The drugs used were oral morphine, oral sustained release morphine and diamorphine for subcutaneous administration by syringe driver. The grade of nurses involved in administering the CDs was also recorded. The time taken by D, E, F, and G grade nurses was extrapolated to the number of hours per annum spent administering the CDs. The hourly rate for the various grades was documented and the total cost calculated. The total annual cost of administering CDs to the seven patients in the study was calculated to be 10,883.94 pounds. The total cost for the two wards was extrapolated to 21,767.88 pounds. The annual cost of the CDs was 7,294.63 pounds. The total cost of the CDs and their administration was 29,062.51 pounds: 75% of the expenditure is the cost of administration. Syringe drivers cost twice as much to administer as sustained release morphine tablets.