Pharmacist escapes being struck off after ‘inappropriate dispensing’

What were the inappropriate quantities?

A report on the full details of the hearing can be found at the bottom of the article. Unfortunately no specific figure was given, only that the dispensing of the drug was "inappropriate and excessive".

James Bloodworth
Reporter, C+D

If you read the report refered to and the subsequent link, it mentions that the pharmacist should have stood up to the obdurate GP and patient. What happened to the GP with regards to his professional body?

What are we supposed to do ?? Call the GP -- GP says it's ok. The patient knows he is taking high dose for a particular pain. Then what are we supposed to do refuse to dispense ?? Will this not be then the breach of contract i.e. not dispensing a valid prescription under the essential services scheme?? Why always penalise pharmacists and not the place from where the script generated ??? Bullocks.

Following on from another case re. pharmacist and Tesco points, if this case had been heard in the UK, the pharmacist might have been hanged, drawn and quartered instead...

Who made the complaint against the pharmacist ?? I suggest then that Michael McMullan now makes a formal complaint to the GMC in that the prescriber has acted in an unprofessional and negligent manner in prescribing innapropriate quantities ! that only seems fair. oh yes and if the FTP committee feel that the quantities were inappropriate, maybe the police should interview the patient to find out why such quantities were being ordered !!!! What a sad state of affairs. Who would want to be a pharmacist these days. Mr McMullan has my sympathy. (J.O. Community Pharmacist)

Its an ambiguous article as we do not know what "inappropriate quantities" refers to. As for exceeding the recommended dose you can do that with a mere 9 tablets being dispensed and then consumed by the patient within a 24 hour period.

I think there is a duty of care by the GP, Pharmacist but also the patient when it comes to taking the medicines, but ultimately the GP cannot force a Pharmacist to supply anything. It's in the professional opinion of the pharmacist whether to dispense or not to. Provided clear instructions are provided to the patient at dispensing so they are fully aware of how to take the meds then the patient needs to take responsibility also for either following these directions or making a conscious decision not to following the directions.

OTC co codamol for instance carries warnings about addiction potential yet Dr s Rx ad nauseum repeats for max dose 30/500 for YEARS on end thus maintaining a silent patient group of essentially heroin addicts.Is this "appropriate"??

It took the patient 3 year to lodge a complaint against the pharmacist... Its so unfair for the profession and the pharmacist Mr McMullan...He should now complaint the GMC and appeal against the complaint questioning the prescribing of the larger quantity of remedine... Is the medicine been misused by the patient?? Was the patient selling it in market for 3 years and lost a potential customer so now looking to scapegoat the pharmacist?? WHY???
No wonder the profession is been undervalued because of such customers and patients whom we as a pharmacist put first as a duty of care!! Shame

We had a case 2 years ago ; we spotted a patient was having a lot of rxs, totted up the amounts (over about 6 months) and sent details to the presciber who hauled the patient in for a review. There was a bit of a fuss but our records were convincing (that the quantities dispensed were greater than would be needed to stick to the prescribed daily dose). We didn't ask if he'd been taking them or sharing them; we left that to the GP.