The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7500 p528
3 May 2008

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Pharmacists should not be disciplined for single errors, guild agrees

Pharmacists who make one-off dispensing errors should not routinely be subject to Royal Pharmaceutical Society disciplinary procedures, the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists has said.

But the guild, which represents hospital pharmacists and those working for primary care trusts and other public sector organisations, believes referral to the Society’s investigating committee should occur in cases involving recklessness, harm or financial gain.

Referral to the Society should also be automatic if the single dispensing error ended in death or serious harm, so that public confidence in the profession and the Society is maintained, it says.

The comments come in the guild’s response to a Society consultation (PDF 380K) on proposals to redefine the kind of cases that should automatically be referred to the Society’s investigating committee (PJ, 9 February, centre pull-out).

The guild says: “Referral to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society is inappropriate if the error is a simple dispensing error with no exacerbating circumstances, as this is a punitive measure and discourages open reporting.”

However, the guild has reservations about the other kinds of cases that the Society is also proposing should no longer automatically be referred to the investigating committee.

These include incidents where a pharmacist has failed to supply a patient information leaflet with medicines, has refused to supply an emergency supply of a prescription-only medicine or has advertised a prescription-only medicine. The guild accepts that other kinds of cases should be considered for non-referral to the committee and suggests that cases of malicious referral should be added to the list.

However, it complains that the referral criteria for these additional cases are confusing.

“The consultation appears to assume that all allegations made will be proven and seems to take the attitude that all are guilty until proven innocent,” the guild says. “The proposals in principle are OK but much of the detail needs to be reworked, including non-referral to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society at all of single, no-harm dispensing errors and other more minor transgressions.”

The proposals for change from the Society follow a review of its fitness-to-practise cases and its desire to operate a system that is proportionate, effective and efficient and which is reserved for serious cases.