An occasional feature, prepared in the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Professional Standards Directorate, to highlight problems and inquiries currently being handled
The legislation governing the requirements for prescription registers was amended on August 18, 1997, to allow records of private prescriptions and emergency supplies to be kept on computer. The requirement for a "register" to be kept has been replaced by a "written or computerised record".
While the restriction of a bound book no longer applies, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Council believes that records should be capable of proving that a prescription only medicine was supplied in accordance with the prescription and on the date stated. The records should be such that an entry cannot be added or removed. It is for this reason that a bound book should be used if written records are kept. This will allow an accurate audit trail to be maintained for prescription only medicines supplied from registered pharmacy premises.
If records are to be held on computer, pharmacists must ensure that the information held is sufficient to comply with the legislation and capable of being extracted for inspection.
From January 1, 2000, pharmacists must ensure that dispensary balances marked with imperial quantities are converted to allow weighing only in metric quantities.
Where a beam balance bears a maximum permissible weight that is not metric, the imperial indication must be restated in metric units elsewhere on the machine (eg, "to weigh to Xg" on the base). The metric indication must be permanent and must be no less prominent than the original non-metric designation.
Where there is a light/heavy scale behind the pointer with an apothecary or avoirdupois unit of weight, this imperial indication should be removed or obliterated. This must be done without altering the position of the scale itself, as this would affect the accuracy of the balance.
Balances altered in the above ways need not be submitted for retesting, assuming there are no other problems with them