PART 2Accountable officers

Accountable officers to take appropriate action if there are well-founded concerns17

1

An accountable officer shall establish and operate, or ensure that his designated body establishes and operates, appropriate arrangements for ensuring that appropriate action is taken for the purposes of protecting patients or members of the public in cases where concerns in relation to the management or use of controlled drugs by a person who is, as regards the designated body, a relevant individual, appear to be well-founded.

2

If there are well-founded concerns in relation to the management or use of controlled drugs by relevant individuals, or wider concerns of possible fraud in relation to health care, as part of the arrangements established under paragraph (1), the action that the accountable officer may take may include (although it need not be limited to) any of the following—

a

requesting additional advice, support, mentoring or training from an appropriate person or body, including—

i

a prescribing advisor,

ii

a clinical governance lead, or

iii

in the case of an employee, a line manager within the designated body, or

iv

the Department;

b

implementation of a serious adverse incident procedure;

c

referral of the concerns to a regulatory body;

d

referral of the concerns to the Police Service of Northern Ireland;

e

in a case of possible fraud in relation to health care, referral of the concerns to the Counter Fraud Unit of RBSO;

f

sharing information with, and requesting information from, other responsible bodies, in accordance with regulation 25 or 26; or

g

requesting that an incident panel be convened by the chair of the local intelligence network (LIN), established under regulation 18(2), made up of officers from any of the bodies that are responsible bodies for the purposes of Part 4, to investigate the concern and make recommendations as mentioned in paragraph (3).

3

An incident panel convened under paragraph (2)(g) of regulation 18(3), may recommend that the accountable officer or designated body take action that includes (although it need not be limited to) any of the following—

a

ongoing monitoring of the relevant individual;

b

referral of the concerns to another accountable officer;

c

referral of the concerns to a regulatory body;

d

referral of the concerns to the Police Service of Northern Ireland; or

e

implementation of a serious adverse incident procedure.