Supervision plans may push up insurance
Government plans to allow community pharmacies to operate without a pharmacist on the premises will inevitably affect liability, insurance providers warned this week.
The Chemists’ Defence Association said it was essential that any
moves towards expanding the pharmacists’ professional role must
not compromise patient safety.
CDA chief executive John D’Arcy said: “It is essential that
any changes are made in a cautious and measured way to ensure that the
need to expand pharmacists’ roles is balanced against any compromise
to patient safety.
“It is also essential that there is no weakening of pharmacy’s
key value proposition — ready and easy access to a pharmacist.”
He accepted that role changes inevitably introduce a new risk profile
which would have to be addressed by risk management strategies including
standard operating procedures.
The Pharmacists’ Defence Association, which has 10,000 members,
also says that the profession would face increased liability if remote
supervision, outlined in the current Health Bill, becomes law.
It is currently surveying its members on the changes, which will be debated
at its annual conference at the end of February.
PDA chairman Mark Koziol said the results so far revealed concern that
some employers may use remote supervision to cut costs rather than to
develop the profession.
“Even though standard operating procedures are already in place
my association deals daily with incidents which are dispensing errors
or near misses,” he
said.
The suggestion that standard operating procedures will protect patients
in the absence of a pharmacist is a “fallacious argument”,
Mr Koziol added. |
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