'Dishonest and aggressive' pharmacist struck off

It's alright the GP's staff saying that they are not happy about the repeat system. Some of them appear to have lost all control over what is prescribed and either issue FP10s for whatever pharmacy staff ask for, or issue RD batches for things that can't possibly be required every month. This doesn't condone the pharmacist's actions, but if some people are given an opportunity to be fraudulent...

No sympathy here at all!!!! Normally i would say the GP's do their fair share of finding loopholes but here unfortunately nothing can be said in regards to the pharmacist's actions.

This. case took too long in concluding
Striking off the pharmacist after nearly 5 years ....undermines
public confidence

You can't just ignore the regulator...love them or hate them! Looks as though Mr Shaikh wanted his cake nad to eat it too. In law no one should benefit from another's mistake either materially or otherwise....

Mr Shaikh obviously didnt care about his registration that much!? Anyone with half a brain would have seen this coming as soon as they refused to pay back that locum pay. The offer to payback the money 'out of court' was in itself a good gesture by the CO-OP, otherwise it was fraud allday long!

Going by the second half of the complaint i.e. the repeat prescription 'scandal', a (very) large number indepentdent pharmacy owners would have to be struck off according to this ruling. The guidelines are not clear about what is considered 'poaching' other pharmacies' patients. If you are an independent struggling against large multiples then you would have to convince customers to come to you - this is not blameworthy and in fact is necessary. At some point the regulator will deem this aggressive.

As for GP surgery receptionists...it's not uncommon for them to mess things up and like to attribute with repeats and I've often seen them attribute the blame elsewhere, the pharmacy next door often being first in their firing line.

The second half of this complaint is typical of many independent pharmacies in the area i work in. Some have also been known to pay receptionists to direct patients to particular pharmacies in addition to some of the practices mentioned above. This is an area of real concern which i feel the GPHC should make clear as to what is acceptable and what is not.