The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 272 No 7284 p134
31 January 2004

Society summary

An occasional feature, prepared in the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Professional Standards Directorate, to highlight problems and inquiries currently being handled

Law and Ethics Bulletin, 2001 to present
See also Good Practice Points, 2003 to present

Child-resistant closures

The Code of Ethics outlines the professional requirements for the use of child-resistant closures. It is a requirement of the code that all solid dose and all oral and external liquid preparations must be dispensed in a reclosable child resistant container unless:

(a) the medicine is in an original pack or patient pack such as to make this inadvisable;
(b) the patient has difficulty in opening a child-resistant container;
(c) a specific request is made that the product shall not be dispensed in a child-resistant container;
(d) no suitable child-resistant container exists for a particular liquid preparation; or
(e) the patient has been assessed as requiring a compliance aid.

A breach of these requirements could give rise to a complaint of professional misconduct.