The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 272 No 7305 p804-805
26 June 2004

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Letters to the Editor

Dispensing

Pharmacists should decide which responsibilities to accept

From Miss S. D. Patel, MRPharmS

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has drawn up guidelines that allow checking technicians to make the final check of medicines in community pharmacy, yet at the same time the Society makes absolutely clear that the accountability still remains with the pharmacist. I appreciate that training will be given and protocols drawn up, but the law is brutally clear: under the Medicines Act 1968 any dispensing error can constitute a criminal offence, resulting in litigation,prosecution, maybe even manslaughter. There are tremendous implications in this for all pharmacists who practise in community. Locums, owners, even pharmacists employed by multiples, cannot escape the consequences since employers may provide checking technicians to free pharmacist time but, in the event of error through oversight, omission or negligence by these checkers, they cannot provide immunity for the pharmacist against the law.

The issue has been fudged and few seem to have even noticed. Technicians have a contribution to make to community pharmacy and are in a position to take over some of the roles that community pharmacists provide, in much the same way that nurses have taken over some tasks from doctors. But this has to go hand in hand with the accountability and liability that comes with the territory. No other profession would relinquish responsibility but still take on the burden of accountability, which is actually greater on pharmacists than on nurses or doctors. The ethics should emphatically state that individual pharmacists have the right to retain the final check if they wish, instead of the ambiguous language currently used.

There are those who will suggest that the technician role is not dissimilar to that of counter assistants who sell medicines on behalf of the pharmacist, but the chance of things going wrong with prescription medicines is on a wholly different level.

With all the distractions that staff are exposed to, pharmacists must decide for themselves whether they will take responsibility for another’s actions and be prepared to face the consequences if things go wrong.

Sittal Patel
London SE19

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