British National Formulary
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The BNF is constructed to support healthcare professionals in making decisions about effective and safe use of medicines. The editors welcome comments that help to improve the information that the BNF provides. Occasionally, where the BNF's advice is felt to be ambiguous, the editors will be pleased to provide the necessary clarification to individual healthcare professionals and organisations who use BNF data under the terms of an agreement with us. We are however concerned that increasingly our editorial resources are being diverted to provide background information to other information providers. This extra workload is not sustainable and we have therefore drawn up a list of dos and don'ts regarding information requests to the BNF:
Do
Tell us if you believe the BNF advice is misleading or inaccurate. We would particularly like to understand why you consider the advice deficient and it would therefore be useful to receive evidence that supports your view
Relate the enquiry to the specific scenario encountered. This again helps us to understand the context of your enquiry better.
Take into account that the BNF is constructed for non-specialists and it cannot always include information to support specialist or expert practice
Give us time to look into the enquiry. The BNF is not geared to provide immediate response - editors may need to look through a great deal of documentation and retrieve previous notes in order to address specific issues. Enquirers also need to bear in mind that during certain periods of the editorial cycle, it may not be possible to devote the necessary time to research into the enquiries
Tell us which reference sources you have already looked at
Look at the pages on this website that explain how the BNF is constructed and also check if the BNF's responses to frequently asked questions deal with the enquiry
The BNF staff are not permitted to correspond with patients or their relatives about individual treatments.
Bearing in mind the guidance above, if you have an enquiry about the publication's clinical content, please contact:
To allow time for editorial processes, we have cut-off dates for receiving information for each edition. For a new product to be considered for inclusion in the next edition of the BNF or BNF for Children, all relevant information needs to be supplied before the cut-off deadline.
Information about changes to existing products (e.g. updated SPCs, “Dear Healthcare Professional” letters etc) also needs to reach us by the cut-off deadline to allow time for consideration by the editors.
Please contact us at
for the next cut-off deadline.
Please note that due to an increasing volume of information from manufacturers immediately before cut-off time, this date is a guide only. We encourage you to submit your completed information to us as early as possible.
To consider listing new products, we will initially require the following details:
Please send all information to
The editors will consider the information provided, and decide if an entry in the BNF is appropriate. We will contact you if further information is required. We cannot guarantee that any new product or information will be included in the forthcoming edition. Please note that the BNF cannot advise if a new product or new information will be included in an edition until after it has been published.
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The UK health departments distribute BNFs to NHS hospitals, doctors, dental surgeons, and community pharmacies. In England, BNFs are mailed individually to NHS general practitioners and community pharmacies. In England, BNFs are mailed individually to NHS general practitioners and community pharmacies; contact the DH Publication Orderline on 0300 123 1002 (minicom 0300 123 1003) for extra copies or changes relating to mailed BNFs. In Wales, telephone the Business Services Centre on 01495 332 000
Printed BNFs—even those that are 6–12 months old—are much in demand in many developing countries. The Pharmaid scheme of the Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Association dispatches old BNFs to Commonwealth countries. BNFs are collected from certain community pharmacies each year in November. For further details check the health press or contact:
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