From Mr D. Kent, MRPharmS
SIR,—The clearing of Dr David Roberts, former chairman of the Dispensing Doctors Association, by the General Medical Council on the charge of "irresponsible" prescribing (PJ, October 23, p662) highlights, in the most disturbing of all manners, that being the death of a patient, the necessity of pharmaceutical oversight of all prescribing.
Had Dr Roberts not been a dispensing doctor and had this prescription not been dispensed by non-professional staff, whether under theoretical or actual supervision of the prescribing doctor, this error would almost certainly have been picked up by a pharmacist, queried, dosage amended, and the life of a patient saved.
No doubt the Dispensing Doctors Association under its new leadership will seek to argue this last point although I fail to see how this could be seriously queried without the ubiquitous employment of pharmacists in their dispensaries.
David Kent
Secretary, Camden & Islington Local Pharmaceutical Committee, London