The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7411 p142
29 July 2006

Society summary

An occasional feature, prepared in the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Professional Standards Directorate, to highlight problems and inquiries currently being handled

Law and Ethics Bulletin, 2001 to present

• Checking the identity of a medical practitioner
• Keep medicines out of the reach and sight of children

Checking the identity of a medical practitioner

Pharmacists are advised that the General Medical Council has stated that it will no longer publish doctors’ registered addresses as a means of confirming their identity. The GMC guidance states that, instead, doctors will be expected to make their registered names and their unique GMC reference numbers readily available to patients, other health care workers, health care institutions and other authorities as a basis for accurate identification and that this would confer a high degree of confidence as to the identity of a particular doctor.

Having a GMC reference number does not mean that a doctor is currently on the medical register.

The GMC can be contacted on 0845 357 3456 to check that a doctor is registered, and also to check that the GMC reference number given is correct and that it belongs to that doctor. These details are also accessible to all via the GMC’s website (www.gmc-uk.org).

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Keep medicines out of the reach and sight of children

Pharmacists are reminded that dispensed medicinal products must be labelled in accordance with the appropriate labelling legislation, which requires the phrase “Keep out of the reach of children” to be included on the dispensing label. However, to help emphasise to patients the importance of storing medicines safely, the Society strongly advises that pharmacists place the phrase “Keep out of the reach and sight of children” on dispensing labels as a matter of good practice.

This good practice requirement mirrors the legislative requirement placed on manufacturers to label the medicines they produce with a warning to store the product out of the reach and sight of children.