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What
I am getting at is, that I think it is important that all pharmacists
are clearly shown, and updated on the ethical and legal issues
of pharmacy.
If a regular patient enters the pharmacy that you have known for
years, and requests some Lipitor but they have no repeats left,
what should you do if you can't contact the doctor?
Am I being dodgy if I dispense Lipitor, if they are promising
to bring a script tomorrow?
A
border line must be set, but no one seems to know what it is (or
tell me).
Recently, I attended an ethics meeting at the Pharmaceutical Society
of Australia.
They are attempting to formulate a new subject on ethics for pharmacy
students just finishing their degree.
I was informed that dispensing scripts like I described above
can result in your pharmacy licence being taken off you.
And the pharmacists response is typically "But everyone does
it!".
Personally, I can't see a lot wrong with making an owing script
to someone I know well.
But, how does the board of pharmacy know that Mr X is a trustworthy
customer?
What
I believe the problem here, and I think the same problem is occurring
in education at university.
Most of the time, all these rules and guidelines are set by professionals
that aren't directly involved in pharmacy.
So, the pharmacists are left with regulations that can be impractical
in the real world.
I
am sure there are legal issues, that need concrete rules, but
we need to look at what is feasible in order to look after patients
in need.
Till
next month,
Andrew
Snow.
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