| A duty of care exists between pharmacist and patient when a pharmacist
is dispensing in response to a prescription. It also exists when he
or she engages in supplementary prescribing, when he or she is giving
advice in relation to a prescribed medicine, when an over-the-counter
medicine is supplied together with the associated advice, and when
advice is provided to a customer in relation to symptoms, even if no
medicine is supplied.
For a claim of negligence to succeed, first, there must be a duty of
care owed between the two parties, secondly, there must be a breach of
that duty, ie, the negligent act, and finally there must be a link between
that act and the injury that is complained of, said Adela Williams, a
solicitor at Arnolds and Porter UK.
An important question when considering standards of care is who sets
the standards — is it the court or the profession? “It is
the profession who will decide what is the acceptable standard to which
pharmacists must adhere. However, if that standard appears to be so out
of line with what the courts think appears reasonable, it will be challenged,” said
Dr Williams.
Pharmacists have an increasingly bigger role in providing advice and
information to patients. Patients seeking advice on medicines may wish
to have information on the potential adverse effects of treatment. According
to the courts, the amount of information that should be disclosed to
a patient is that which a responsible body of medical or pharmacy opinion
would provide to a reasonable patient, said Dr Williams. If the risks
of a procedure or treatment are particularly high then the courts will
expect the pharmacist or doctor to disclose this information to the patient.
Dr Williams highlighted the implications for pharmacy practice. These
included the necessity for insurance or protection by Crown Indemnity,
the need to keep up to date and the need to keep records. Records that
deal with what is dispensed and what advice is given are an essential
part of protection against any claim. “This is an area where I
can see there being real difficulties for pharmacists,” said Dr
Williams. “Pharmacists give a huge amount of advice every day and
cannot possibly be expected to remember what was said. There will be
no records of the vast majority of such discussions. In these circumstances
the evidence relied upon by the courts is that of the usual practice
of the pharmacist.” She advised pharmacists to keep records for
at least three years since patients must bring a claim within this time.
However, she warned that in the case of product liability pharmacists
need to think about keeping records for at least 10 years. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal