Few pharmacists found guilty of misdemeanours
Only a minority of pharmacists are found guilty of any misdemeanour,
according to a new study of Statutory Committee cases.
A study of Statutory Committee reports published in The Pharmaceutical
Journal between October 1988 and September 1998 found a low incidence
of misdemeanours. Study author Dr David Brown, head of pharmacy practice
at the Portsmouth school of pharmacy, told The Journal: “It seems
that the vast majority of pharmacists are toeing the current regulatory
and ethical line.”
In the 10-year period, 344 pharmacists were involved in cases covering
a wide range of personal (162) and professional (590) misdemeanours. The
commonest personal offences were fraud and theft. The most common professional
offences were failure to keep adequate written records, unsupervised sales
of pharmacy medicines, failing to fulfil the duties of a superintendent
pharmacist and labelling irregularities.
Nearly half of all the misdemeanours took place at community pharmacies
in Greater London or South East England and almost all professional offences
occurred in independent or small-chain pharmacies.
The authors say that few trends in the nature of misdemeanours are apparent.
Men pharmacists were over seven times more likely to commit an offence
than women. Similarly, pharmacists from ethnic minorities were 3.8 times
more likely to have made a Statutory Committee appearance than Caucasian
pharmacists (based on name recognition).
The study is published in Pharmacy
World and Science (2003;25:43).
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