Legislation surrounding the administration of medicines by paramedics

A range of drugs are routinely stocked on board an ambulance for administration to patients by paramedics and ambulance technicians. Paramedics and technicians should be aware of the legislation that authorizes them to administer these medicines to patients, in order to be able to justify their actions and to understand the law that allows them to administer drugs such as prescription only medicines and controlled drugs.

A formulary is a list of approved medicines. Most hospital and primary care prescribers work within an agreed formulary of medicines (which may differ between regions), and ambulance services have their own formularies. Your ambulance trust formulary has been agreed locally and approved by key local stakeholders such as pharmacists, clinicians and other medical professionals. It contains all of the medicines that paramedics and ambulance technicians can administer in his/her trust. These are the only medicines that you can administer in your place of work.

You may also be familiar with another formulary—The Joint Royal Colleges Ambulance Liaison Committee (JRCALC) formulary, which is listed within the JRCALC guidelines (2006). The JRCALC formulary is a list of common drugs available for administration by paramedics and it has been prepared and approved by key stakeholders from across the UK. Individual trust formularies are local adaptations of the larger JRCALC document.