The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7404 p677
10 June 2006

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· Education (2)
· NHS funding
· Complementary medicine
· Electronic prescribing
· The profession
· Women in politics
· Packaging design
· Statutory Committee
· Annual general meeting
· Council expenses
· Regulation
· Section 60 Order
· Council election

Letters to the Editor

Electronic prescribing

Pharmacists will always be needed

From Mr M. Levy, MRPharmS

Barcodes (PJ, 27 May, p622) have been proven to be a nearly foolproof way of dispensing as long as the barcode represents one specific product. In Israel some of the health funds have introduced electronic dispensing where the dispensed drug is electronically checked against the prescription. A prescription that has been printed and signed by the doctor is presented to the pharmacist by the patient, the prescription details are entered by a barcode scanner which reads the patient’s identification number, the doctor’s number and a specific number for the prescription. This is checked online and the drugs show up on the monitor according to the doctor’s prescription. The drugs are dispensed using a barcode reader to identify the drugs. These have to match up with the drug on the screen.

Even without the use of electronic prescriptions, using barcodes to dispense medicines ensures that if a patient returns claiming to have received the wrong drug, you can confidently prove what has been dispensed.

The system here has some failings but I think it is excellent. I do not think that it makes the pharmacist a robot. If anything it gives you more time to look at the prescription and more time with the patient to explain how to use the medicine. What it does do is reduce dispensing errors. There is no problem in deciphering doctors’ writing and less worry that in the “rush” you gave out the wrong medicine. There are programs that also include drug interaction and dosage checks, but they can never take into account over-the-counter medicines and natural remedies — so we are really still needed.

Morris Levy
Israel

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