PSNC issues guidance on disability laws
Pharmacists may be breaking the law if they fail to provide medicines in a plain screw top bottle to patients with arthritis, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee warned in new guidance published this week.
They should also consider issuing medication reminder charts to patients
who have problems with their short-term memory and large print labels
for patients who are visually impaired, the PSNC recommends.
The advice appears in case studies highlighted in new guidance that has
been prepared for pharmacists to meet their legal obligations under the
Disability Discrimination Act 1995 when supplying medicines to patients
who have a disability.
Pharmacists have first to decide whether a patient is classified as disabled
according to the definition in the Act and then, secondly, whether their
disability means they need additional help with the supply of their medicines.
But the guidance warned: “A person who finds it convenient to have
medicines dispensed in a monitored dosage system or a person who wants
tablets popped out of blister packs because of a preference for screw
top bottles is not necessarily disabled.”
The Department of Health has promised to reimburse pharmacists for the
costs of complying with their duty under the act, the PSNC confirmed.
Reimbursement will be on a pence per prescription basis.
The money will be shared according to the number of prescriptions dispensed,
in the belief that the more prescriptions that are dispensed, the more
patients with a disability are likely to be encountered, said the guidance.
However, the PSNC promised it would monitor the payment system and if
it appears to be unfair it will raise the issue with the DoH and try
to develop a different system. |
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