The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 272 No 7288 p261
28 February 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

Professional accountability

The Society has on occasion dealt with complaints involving dispensing errors in circumstances in which the pharmacist in charge at the time when the medicine was supplied to the patient was not the pharmacist in charge when the prescription was assembled. Pharmacists are advised that an identifiable pharmacist must be accountable for every professional activity undertaken. The transfer of medicines to the patient forms part of the dispensing process and therefore the pharmacist on duty when the supply is made cannot absolve himself or herself from responsibility for that supply on the basis that he or she did not dispense the medicine.