High Risk Medicine standards have a new home on the CEC website

4 March 2024

The CEC High-risk medicine standards are updated and are now found on the CEC website. Previously included in the NSW Health Policy Directive High-Risk Medicines Management, the standards have been separated and moved to the CEC website for ease of access and to streamline updating.

High-risk medicines are those that have a high risk of causing injury or harm if they are misused or used in error. Error rates with these medicines are not necessarily higher than with other medicines, but when problems do occur the consequences can be severe.

There are ten high-risk medicine standards for ten medicines: anticancer medicines, anticoagulants, hydromorphone, insulin, methotrexate, neuromuscular blocking agents, opioids, paracetamol, intravenous potassium and vinca alkaloids. Each of these standards is on a standalone page on the CEC website. On this page, there is a printable version of the standard to download as well as an implementation checklist which can be used by facilities and individual units to determine compliance with the requirements of the standard. The insulin and anticancer medicines standards are newly developed.