The Boots peppermint water case (see p390) raises questions over whether community pharmacists should dispense extemporaneously, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's director of professional standards (Mrs Susan Sharpe) has said.
There were questions over how pharmacists should balance the immediacy of the patient's need with the National Health Service requirement that medicines should be supplied with reasonable promptness.
The Society would be looking at how its guidance and structures could prevent a similar incident from happening again. It would consider standards for extemporaneous dispensing, taking into account its decline in frequency and issues related to the supervision and checking of dispensing.
The Society was not able to mandate specific procedures, but it could identify salient points in extemporaneous dispensing. In addition, the Society's education division would be examining the training of pharmacists.
"All community pharmacists who are going to take on preregistration trainees need to have an understanding of the basic knowledge and skill levels they are likely to get from a raw graduate. What needs to be picked up in the training year will depend on the base level of competence of graduates," Mrs Sharpe said.
"This is a case which raises a lot of issues that need to be explored and developed further."