The colour purple

March 12, 2008

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Interest in high pressure, high flow PICC’s is growing. However, Deborah Bolton, IV Clinical Nurse Specialist from Brighton has questioned the colour of these devices. The NPSA issued a patient safety alert in 2007 that promoted the use of identifiable oral only compatible equipment. This was in response to…“Incorrect intravenous administration of oral liquid medicines has resulted in three reported deaths between 2001 and 2004 and there are reports of four incidents of harm or near misses between 1997 and 2004″ (NPSA 2007).Following this alert the standard colour for enteral/oral type equipment has become purple! Unfortunately, this conflicts with at least two high pressure, high flow PICC’s that are on the market in the UK. Could this further confuse the situation between oral and IV routes? We will advise Deborah to inform the NPSA of her concerns, however if anyone has any further issues please feel free to add your comments to this blog.