The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7427 p621
18 November 2006

Statutory Committee inquiries

The Statutory Committee will meet at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, 1 Lambeth High Street, London SE1, at 9.30am on Monday 20, Tuesday 21, Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 November 2006 to hear the following inquiries:

1. The new inquiry into a complaint by the Council of the Society against Neil Hutchinson (registration number 79982) and Carol Janette Hutchinson (registration number 79981) which alleges that, in relation to Mr Hutchinson, a number of dispensing errors; the supply of a Controlled Drug, namely 30 x Concerta X tablets, against a prescription for 14 such tablets; a failure to comply with the labelling regulations; a breach of Regulation 19 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 relating to record-keeping; a failure to supply a patient with his medicines and the pharmacy’s failure to deal with the subsequent complaint appropriately; the supply of medicines to a patient without reference to a prescription or a copy prescription and without checking with the prescriber; an over-supply of Candesartan tablets and a failure to label this supply accurately; a failure to keep a verifiable audit trail of the supply of prescription-only medicines; the supply of medicines to a patient by reference only to previously incorrectly supplied medicines and the labelling from an old monitored dosage system pack; a failure to act in the best interests of a patient; a failure to deal with a patient’s mother in a professional and courteous manner; a failure as superintendent pharmacist to have in place a system to identify each pharmacist responsible for a particular supply; a failure to heed the advice of the Society; a failure to have in place adequate procedures for dispensing in monitored dosage systems; the pharmacy’s inadequate procedures for dealing with errors and complaints; an unacceptably dirty and untidy pharmacy; a failure to assess or remove date-expired chemicals and/or medicines; the presence in the pharmacy of returned medicines; the presence at the pharmacy of patient returned medicines, including prescription only medicines, (a) on a stairway to which customers had access, (b) in the stockroom and (c) in the office; and, the dispensing of owings without reference to the relevant prescription, may amount to misconduct.

In relation to Mrs Hutchinson, the Society’s Council alleges that: the supply of a Controlled Drug, namely 30 x Concerta X tablets, against a prescription for 14 such tablets; a breach of Regulation 19 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 relating to record-keeping; the pharmacy’s failure to deal appropriately with a complaint; a failure of the pharmacy to keep a verifiable audit trail of the supply of prescription-only medicines; the failure of the pharmacy to have in place a system to identify each pharmacist responsible for a particular supply; a failure to heed the advice of the Society; the supply of medicines to a patient using only previously incorrect medicines and labelling from an old monitored dosage system pack; the pharmacy’s failure to have in place adequate procedures governing dispensing in monitored dosage systems; the pharmacy’s inadequate procedures for dealing with errors and complaints; an unacceptably dirty and untidy pharmacy; a failure to assess or remove date-expired chemicals and/or medicines; the presence at the pharmacy of patient-returned medicines, including prescription only medicines, (a) on a stairway to which customers had access, (b) in the stockroom and (c) in the office; and, a failure to record maximum and minimum refrigerator temperatures daily, may amount to misconduct.

2. The new inquiry into a complaint by the Council of the Society against Clare Susannah Hatherley (registration number 1071510) which alleges misconduct.

3. The Committee will resume the inquiry into a complaint by the Council of the Society against Korush Jalali Farahani (registration number 1067185) which alleges that the theft of a number of codeine phosphate tablets from a pharmacy while working as a locum pharmacist, the possession of 14 Kapake capsules which had not been prescribed for him, and the consumption of codeine phosphate tablets and Kapake capsules while working as a locum pharmacist, may amount to misconduct. The Committee will also consider a conviction for the theft of 40 x 30mg codeine phosphate tablets and 14 x 10mg zolpidem tartrate tablets of a value unknown belonging to Superdrug Plc, contrary to Sections 1(1) and 7 of the Theft Act 1968.

4. The Committee will deliver the determination of the inquiry into a complaint by the Council of the Society against Bijal Vithalbhai Patel (registration number 84459) and Greenoaks Pharmacy Ltd (identification number 1003087) which alleged that the submission of wrong claims to the Prescription Pricing Authority resulting in an overpayment to the company of £16,509.67; the operation of a system involving the alteration of endorsements on prescriptions by a superintendent pharmacist who was not the dispensing pharmacist and without consultation with the dispensing pharmacist; a lack of professional knowledge in relation to prescribing for and dispensing of the contraceptive pill; the failure to keep knowledge up-to-date in relation to endorsements and the Drug Tariff; the incorrect instruction by the superintendent pharmacist to a dispensing pharmacist employed by the company in respect of dispensing against prescriptions for the contraceptive pill; and the dishonest and/or erroneous completion and/or submission of untrue declarations contained in applications for inclusion on the primary care trust’s list, individually or cumulatively, may have amounted to misconduct.

David Gomez
Secretary to the Statutory Committee