New guidance on collection and delivery schemes
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society's guidance on the collection and delivery of medicines from central points other than registered pharmacies has been revised.
At the August
Council meeting, the Council agreed to the publication
of the revised guidance to help ensure that where such a service is required,
appropriate procedures are in place.
The revised guidance is intended as a good practice resource for pharmacists
already involved in collection and delivery services or for pharmacists
who are planning to set up such a scheme. The guidance covers setting
up the schemes, medicines storage and security, patient confidentiality,
audit trails and the provision of advice to patients.
The chairman of the Society’s Law and Ethics Committee, Douglas
Simpson, said: “There is provision within the Medicines Act 1968
to enable pharmacists to make arrangements for patients to drop off prescriptions
and then collect their dispensed medicines from premises other than registered
pharmacies. However, it is important that where there is a need to collect
and deliver to and from a non-pharmacy premises that schemes are carefully
set up and robust systems are in place to ensure patient safety is not
compromised. This revised guidance, which now covers Scotland, will therefore
enable safe, effective schemes to be set up and operated for the convenience
of patients.”
The Society last published guidance for prescription collection and delivery
arrangements from non-registered premises in 1989. However, this guidance
only extended to collection and delivery services in England and Wales
and the Society believed that there was a need to provide updated guidance
for all situations in which a central collection and delivery scheme
could operate in Scotland, England or Wales.
The Society says that its law and ethics advisory service has received
a number of queries about setting up prescription collection and delivery
schemes from non-registered premises in urban areas where there is no
pharmacy close by — for example, office developments, industrial
sites, etc,). These queries could not be dealt with by reference to the
existing guidance because it did not extend to the establishment of schemes
in urban areas. Developments within the pharmacy profession including
broader delivery services, online pharmacy services and the electronic
transfer of prescriptions also mean that the mechanisms by which patients
traditionally receive their medicines has changed.
The guidance, “Collection and delivery services from central points”,
is available from the Society’s website (PDF 100K).
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal