Background infusions should only be used in patients who have been on long term opioids and must only be initiated by an Anaesthetist or Acute Pain Nurse.

Please also note that the shipping rates for many items we sell are weight-based. The weight of any such item can be found on its detail page. To reflect the policies of the shipping companies we use, all weights will be rounded up to the next full pound.

2.1 Issues confirmed by the RDS and Tactuum teams as meeting the critical/urgent and high priority criteria will continue to be prioritised and dealt with immediately.

Many thanks to those of you who attended our recent webinar on the contingency arrangements being put in place to prevent future RDS outages as far as possible and minimise impact if they do occur.  Please contact ann.wales3@nhs.scot if you would like a copy of the slides from this session.

When you place an order, we will estimate shipping and delivery dates for you based on the availability of your items and the shipping options you choose. Depending on the shipping provider you choose, shipping date estimates may appear on the shipping quotes page.

If you need to return an item, simply login to your account, view the order using the "Complete Orders" link under the My Account menu and click the Return Item(s) button. We'll notify you via e-mail of your refund once we've received and processed the returned item.

You may return most new, unopened items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. We'll also pay the return shipping costs if the return is a result of our error (you received an incorrect or defective item, etc.).

2.2 Support requests that are outwith the warranty period of 12 weeks since the software was originally developed will not be automatically addressed by Tactuum. The RDS team will consider these requests for costed development work and will obtain estimate of effort and cost from Tactuum for priority issues.

Patients with PCA need regular observations of pain, nausea, sedation and respiratory rate, in addition to the conventional postoperative recording.

A registered nurse caring for a patient with PCA should have attended the acute pain study and declare her/himself competent in the management of the PCA.

Note: Changing from PCA to subcutaneous injections is not acceptable when an oral route has been established. This may only be acceptable when intravenous access is difficult.

The next scheduled RDS deployment will take place at the end of November 2024.  We are reviewing all outstanding support tickets and feature requests along with estimates of effort and cost to determine which items will be included in this deployment.

All patients receiving PCA must have oxygen 4L/min by facemask or 2L/min via nasal cannula, for 24 hours postoperatively and then overnight until PCA is discontinued, unless directed to do so otherwise by an Anaesthetist.NO OTHER OPIOIDS are to be administered to the patient whilst PCA is in use (oral, subcutaneous, intramuscular, intravenous or topical) unless directed to do so by an Anaesthetist or Acute Pain Nurse.Ensure Naloxone 400 microgram injection is available on the ward.PCA keys to be kept in the Controlled Drugs cupboard.

We have recently analysed the results of a survey of users of the Scottish Palliative Care Guidelines toolkit.  Key findings from 61 respondents include:

The surgical medical staff or nurse practitioner should be called in the first instance for all routine surgical problems including:

Please note that we plan to move in the new year to a new system whereby requests all come to an RDS support portal in the first instance and are triaged from there to Tactuum when appropriate.

If further advice is required, please contact the Acute Pain Nurse (bleep 1003) and if not available, the ITU anaesthetist.

The Prescription should be prescribed in the regular or 'As required' section of the Drug Kardex and affix a “PCA/Epidural Opioid in Progress” onto the Kardex.

Reviewer name(s): Louise Reid, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Claire Wright Acute Pain Nurse Specialist .

10. Training sessions for new editors (also serve as refresher sessions for existing editors) will take place on the following dates:

2.3 Support tickets for technical issues that are not classified as bugs will not be automatically addressed by Tactuum. The definition of a bug is ‘a defect in the software that is at variance with documented user requirements.’  Issues that are not bugs will also be considered for costed development work.

Editors will now start seeing new messages come through in response to support ticket requests which reflect this tightening up and improvement of our processes.

NSAIDs and paracetamol help to minimise opioid side-effects by reducing the total dose of opioid required and should be prescribed regularly not PRN.

To balance increasing demand with available capacity and financial resource, the RDS team and Tactuum are now working together to  implement closer management of support tickets. As a key part of this, we want to ensure clear, timely and consistent communication with yourselves as requesters.

The NES clinical knowledge pathway (CKP) publisher is now retired and the majority of pathways supported by this tool have been transferred to the RDS. Examples include:

2.4 Non-urgent requests that require a deployment (i.e a new release of RDS) will normally be factored into the next scheduled release (currently end of Nov 2024 and end of Feb 2025) unless by special agreement with the RDS team.

We can ship to virtually any address in the world. Note that there are restrictions on some products, and some products cannot be shipped to international destinations.

We will be organising a webinar in a few weeks’ time to take you through the details of the current support processes and criteria.

To book a place, please contact Olivia.graham@nhs.scot, providing your name, organisation, job role, and level of experience with RDS editing (none, a little, moderate, extensive.)

If a ward doctor or non-medical prescriber wishes to prescribe an alternative dose, discussion should first take place with the Acute Pain Nurse or an Anaesthetist.

Anti-emetics must be prescribed on the Drug Kardex if patient is to have PCA, see  TAM postoperative nausea and vomiting guidelines.

Preparation of each syringe must be witnessed by a trained nurse or doctor, in accordance with Hospital SOPs on Preparation and Administration of Controlled Drugs (see resources).

Each change of syringe must be witnessed by a trained nurse or doctor who has received PCA training.  Follow the Hospital SOPs on Preparation and Administration of Controlled Drugs (see resources).

Users highlighted key areas for improvement in terms of navigation and search functionality. The survey was very valuable in enabling us to uncover the specific issues affecting the user experience. Many of these can be addressed through content management approaches. The issues identified with search results echo other user feedback, and we are costing improvements with a view to implementation in the next RDS deployment.

Ten bite-size (5 mins or less) video tutorials for RDS editors are now available in the “Resources for providers of RDS tools” section of the RDS.  These cover core functionality including Save and preview, content page and media management, password management and much more.

Please remember to email ann.wales3@nhs.scot and his.decisionsupport@nhs.scot with any critical/urgent issues in addition to raising a support ticket.

This decision support software, sponsored by Scottish Government Effective Prescribing and Therapeutics Division,  is now available for all primary care clinicians across NHS Tayside. Board-wide implementation is also planned for NHS Lothian, and NHS GGC, NHS Ayrshire and Arran and NHS Dumfries and Galloway have initial pilots in progress. The University of Dundee has been commissioned to evaluate impact of this decision support software on prescribing practice.

You should expect to receive your refund within four weeks of giving your package to the return shipper, however, in many cases you will receive a refund more quickly. This time period includes the transit time for us to receive your return from the shipper (5 to 10 business days), the time it takes us to process your return once we receive it (3 to 5 business days), and the time it takes your bank to process our refund request (5 to 10 business days).