Society attacks EEA prescriptions
Proposals to allow pharmacists to dispense prescriptions written by non-UK registered doctors from within the European Economic Area and Switzerland will put them at odds with their professional ethics and patients could be put at risk, says the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (PDF 50K).
Responding to Government
plans that have been put forward because of
pressure from the European
Commission (PJ, 25 August, p199), the Society
set out its concerns centred on the first principle of its Code of Ethics,
which requires pharmacists (and pharmacy technicians) to ensure that
patients have safe and timely access to medicines.
If the proposals as outlined in the consultation document are implemented,
UK pharmacists will face a number of practical problems in meeting their
legal and professionals requirements. … The pharmacist could be placed
in a professionally compromising position of a patient requiring vital
medicines and a regulatory minefield to navigate in order to verify authenticity,” the
Society says.
The Society’s view is that UK pharmacists could face serious obstacles
when trying to verify prescriptions. These include problems verifying
the registration status of non-UK prescribers, difficulties reading prescriptions
written in a foreign language and further spoken language difficulties
if anything on a prescription needed clarification.
“If these difficulties are not overcome, patient safety could be
placed at risk,” the Society says.
Further concern is expressed over the proposal to exempt foreign prescriptions
from the normal UK requirements for information that a prescription must
contain.
The Society says that such an exemption would mean that foreign prescriptions
were subject to lower controls than domestic ones and that this could
undermine patient safety and make it harder for pharmacists to identify
forged prescriptions.
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