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Letters to the Editor
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Hospital pharmacy
One-stop dispensing
From Mrs A. R. Storey, MRPharmS
Are there any colleagues who share my view that one-stop dispensing
is not all it is cracked up to be?
I work at a hospital where one ward out of six currently uses the one-stop
system. On a daily basis it can take in excess of three hours to complete the
ward visit and dispense the relevant items. For some patients we redispense
parts of the same “to take outs” (TTOs) several times before them
going home, due to dose changes etc. According to the media, one-stop dispensing
is a more efficient system. We never had a problem with patients having to
wait for their TTOs in the first place.
I recognise that it is great for the nurses, but surely it cannot be cost-effective
for pharmacy? Time spent on this ward can be prohibitive to other duties and
drug returns from the ward have shot through the roof. With only one pharmacist
on site two days or more of every week and no prospect of being inundated with
extra staff, can someone explain to me how we should be expected to roll out
this system to our other five wards?
Amanda Storey
Birmingham
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal