Irish “risk Shipman-type pharmacy scandal”, warns Society
The Irish Republic has been warned that it risks a Shipman-type scandal in the pharmacy sector because of the lack of legislative controls to remove rogue operators.
The warning was delivered by Mandie Lavin, director of fitness to practise
and legal affairs at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, who pointed out
that, unlike the UK, the Republic has no robust fitness-to-practise system
for pharmacists. “If I had a serious criminal conviction, I could
own and operate a pharmacy,” she declared. Speaking at a conference
in Dublin earlier this month hosted by the Irish Pharmaceutical Union,
she said that the way in which Shipman perpetrated the killings had important
lessons for Irish legislators. In Britain, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
could remove from the register a pharmacist found to have acted in an
unprofessional manner. In Ireland, however, which had no such controls, “there
is a real fear that a person like Shipman could obtain large amounts
of potent drugs”.
The current rules for regulating the Irish pharmacy sector, she pointed
out, date back to 1875 and do not contain provisions for rogue pharmacists
to be struck off. In response to the criticism, a spokesperson for Irish
health minister Mary Harney said legislation was being prepared that
would introduce fitness-to-practise regulations and empower the IPU to
enforce them.
Correction
Legislation to introduce fitness-to-practise regulations in the Irish Republic will empower the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland to enforce the regulations, not the Irish Pharmaceutical Union as stated. |
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