Destruction, loss & damage

Everyday wastage - the syringe-hub leftovers from a normal dose - is captured on the billing charge itself or with a hand-added Wastage entry. See Recording movements.

This page is the other two: destruction, the formal disposal of actual stock (expired bottles, unwanted supplies, surrendered drugs), and loss or damage, when stock leaves the safe without being given.

Common tasks

Setting stock aside first

Between "this vial is expired" and "it is gone" there can be weeks. In Queensland the waste has to stay in the S8 safe, separated and marked, until an approved disposer collects it, and nobody at the practice destroys anything at all.

⋯ → Set aside for destruction → the Drug, the Quantity, a Reason ("Expired"), and optionally a note about where you put it. An Awaiting destruction card appears on the register listing everything you have bagged up.

Anyone can set stock aside - it does not have to be a vet - because nothing is recorded in the register at this point.

Setting stock aside does not change the balance, on purpose

The stock is still in the safe, so the register still says you hold it. That is not an oversight, and it matters in two ways:

• A stock check still adds up. If the balance dropped when you bagged something up, a blind count of the safe would find more than the register says and report a discrepancy that does not exist.
• Putting it back costs nothing. Change your mind and Put back into stock simply un-marks it. Nothing was written, so there is nothing to reverse - and a register entry reversing a movement that never physically happened would sit there permanently.

The balance shows "N awaiting destruction" underneath it so you can see what is spoken for.

Handing stock to a disposal contractor

When the disposer collects it: ⋯ on the row → Handed to a disposer → who took it and their receipt or docket reference.

This is recorded as a transfer out, not a destruction, and that is deliberate. You did not destroy the stock and you cannot swear that anyone has yet - the contractor does it later, under its own environmental authority. Signing a destruction entry would be attesting to something that has not happened.

The receipt reference is required because it is what ties your register to their paperwork. Queensland accepts either the disposer signing your register or issuing a receipt notice, and the docket number is the one you always have in your hand.

Recording a destruction

1. Destruction, top right of the register - or ⋯ → Destroyed here on a row you already set aside, which fills in the drug, safe and quantity for you and locks them.
2. The Drug, the Quantity, and a Reason ("Expired stock").
3. The Method ("Denatured in kitty litter") and Place ("At the clinic"). Some states require both - filling them in is always good practice.
4. The witness. One is always required, and there is one way to record them, whoever they are: their name, their profession, a registration number (required for a pharmacist in some states, optional otherwise), and their signature, drawn on screen. Hand them the mouse or touchscreen - they sign for themselves. Where your state asks for it, tick the declaration that they're not your spouse, relative or de facto partner. The signature is sealed into the tamper-evident record.
5. Anything else worth recording goes in Notes.
6. The red Record destruction button.

Same pharmacist every time? Tick Save this witness for next time and their name, profession and registration number are one click away next time. Only the signature is drawn fresh - it always must be.

Who counts as a witness depends on your state

The destruction window adapts to the state in your clinic's address.

• NSW - another vet is not a valid destruction witness. S8 stock must be destroyed by (or in the presence of) a pharmacist, or under police or health-inspector supervision. NSW clinics aren't offered their own vets in the witness list.
• VIC and QLD - another vet is acceptable, and they appear in the list.

The professions on offer are filtered to what your state accepts. An option you expected being missing is the law for your state, not a fault.

Witness doesn't fit any of the labels? Choose Other authorised person and type who they are in the name field. It's offered in every state.

Recording a loss or damage

Sometimes stock leaves the safe without being given, destroyed or wasted normally - a vial gets dropped, an ampoule goes missing, or a drawn-up dose is never given.

⋯ → Loss or damage → the Type → the Drug and Quantity → a Reason ("Vial dropped", "Patient refused after draw-up") → optionally a Witness if another vet saw it happen → Record.

An unwitnessed breakage counts as a reportable loss

If a second vet saw the ampoule break, add them as the witness and it's recorded as straightforward damage. If nobody witnessed it, the law treats it like an unexplained loss - which is why the form warns you, and why the reporting screen appears afterwards.

After a loss, Wattle tells you who to notify

Recording a loss (or an unwitnessed damage) doesn't just file the entry. A Report this loss screen tells you who the loss must be reported to in your state, how soon, and whether the police need to know - always, for suspected theft. Where your state has an online form, Open the reporting form takes you straight there.

The register entry is already saved at this point. The reporting is the extra legal duty on top.

Witnessed returns and witnessed damage don't trigger the reporting screen at all.

Gotchas

• Routine dose wastage is not a loss. Syringe-hub leftovers belong in the Wastage box on the charge. The Loss or damage form will remind you if that's what you're actually recording.
• The Record destruction button won't activate without a drug, a quantity above zero, a real reason (spaces don't count), and a witness with a name, a profession and a drawn signature - plus a registration number if they're a pharmacist and your state requires one.
• A messy witness signature is fine. It's a finger or mouse signature, not calligraphy. What matters is that they drew it themselves.
• No witness available right now? The destruction can't be recorded, and that's deliberate - controlled drugs shouldn't be destroyed unwitnessed. Wait for your pharmacist visit, or a second vet.
• No witness dropdown on a loss means there's no other vet at your clinic to pick. The entry still records, it just names nobody as having seen it.
• You can't destroy part of a bag. If you set aside 20 mL, the destruction has to be 20 mL. Destroying less and closing the item would leave the remainder unaccounted for in both directions.
• Two vets, one bag. If someone else has already destroyed or handed over what you're looking at, Wattle refuses rather than writing a second entry for the same vial. Refresh the page.
• Everything set aside shows up in Reports → Destruction activity, including what you put back - which nothing else in the register can show you, because putting something back is never written to it.

Next

Reports & printing · Stock checks · Recording movements