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Letters to the Editor
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Labelling
Deplorable standard of labelling
From Mr D. J. A. Morgan, MRPharmS
Since the Royal Pharmaceutical Society can set standards for every aspect
of our professional activities, is it not time that attention was given
to the deplorable standard of labelling in most of the nation’s pharmacies?
The matter is considered too simple for any instruction to be given to
either graduates or dispensing staff — after all, it is simply slapping
a label on a box or bottle, is it not?
Wrong, totally wrong. When I qualified, presentation was considered important.
Woe betide any student or pharmacist who labelled a container sloppily
as this was considered slovenly and unprofessional. Now one all too frequently
sees labels slapped on any old how, often crooked, upside down (to the
print on the carton), sometimes overhanging the edge of the box and, incredibly,
covering the name of the product on the front of the box when the manufacturer
has provided a space for labelling on the reverse. Is it not current advice
that a label should never obscure the name of the product?
The public must be appalled at how slapdash labelling has become and how
frequently one sees a container vandalised by having ball-point pen scrawled
all over it to indicate that it has already been opened and used. None
of the modules that the various companies use for training their dispensing
staff even mentions the subject, yet no one appears to worry as to what
patients must think when constantly reminded of such slovenly dispensing
practice when taking their medicines.
And why do prescription items have to be handed to the patient in a cheap
plastic bag or multiple items just chucked into a carrier bag like a load
of groceries? Should potent medication not be made secure before it leaves
the pharmacy? Where is the pride in dispensing today, a quality product
in every aspect handed to the patient? One almost wonders if the labelling,
presentation and packaging of medicines is so slapdash, what is the dispensing
and the overall attitude and culture within the pharmacy like?
David Morgan
Guildford, Surrey |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal