The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7439 p200
17 February 2007

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

• Clarification on “Changes to the return and storage of waste medicines in Scotland”
• Clarification on “Validity period for owing slips”

Clarification on “Changes to the return and storage of waste medicines in Scotland”

The intention of the Law and Ethics Bulletin on “Changes to the return and storage of waste medicines in Scotland” (PJ, 2 December 2006, p675) was to confirm that in Scotland the Waste Management Licensing Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2006 enabled certain waste to be returned to pharmacies from care services, including all care homes (irrespective of whether or not they employ nurses).

“Care services” for the purposes on the above Regulations has the same meaning as in Section 2 of the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001.

By way of clarification the care services defined as those from which pharmacies in Scotland may accept returned waste include the following:

(a) A support service
(b) A care home service
(c) A school care accommodation service
(d) An independent health care service
(e) A nurse agency
(f) A child care agency
(g) A secure accommodation service
(h) An offender accommodation service
(i) An adoption service
(j) A fostering service
(k) An adult placement service
(l) Child minding
(m) Day care of children
(n) A housing support service

For the legal definitions of each type of care service, please refer to Subsections 2(2) to 2(27) of the Act, which can be accessed through the Office of Public Sector Information website

Scottish Ministers set up the National Care Standards Committee to develop national standards. Individual standards covering all types of current (or future) registered care settings can be accessed through the Scottish Executive website. The introduction section of each standard gives a fuller description of what is included in each type of care service, for example:

• In Scotland, hospices are part of the independent health care sector. … The hospices have charitable status and make no charge to the users of their services.

• School care accommodation services are provided for the purpose of the pupil being in attendance at a public, independent or grant-aided school; and consist of the provision, in a place in or outwith the school, of residential accommodation.

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Clarification on “Validity period for owing slips”

The Law and Ethics Bulletin published in The Pharmaceutical Journal on 20 January (p90) stated that a prescription for a Schedule 5 Controlled Drug, a prescription-only medicine, a pharmacy medicine or a general sale list medicine is valid for six months from the appropriate date, unless it is a repeatable prescription.

By way of clarification, pharmacists are advised that the six-month validity period of an owing for a prescription for a pharmacy (P) or general sale list medicine (GSL) is not a legislative requirement but is, instead, a professional one. However, where a P or GSL medicine is being prescribed off-licence, then legislation would prevent an owing from being supplied more than six months after the appropriate date. Legislation also prevents owings for Schedule 5 Controlled Drugs or prescription-only medicines being supplied more than six months from the appropriate date, unless it is a repeatable prescription.