Edugwu Fatu Enenche, registration number 2083434, was warned by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) after dispensing prescriptions she had received “via text messages” from doctors including her husband.
At a hearing on May 28, the GPhC’s investigating committee heard that the private prescriptions involved were prescribed by Enenche’s husband, a doctor, and “friends who were also doctors”.
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According to the determination document, Enenche “sometimes wrote out” the prescriptions received from doctors and “allowed for the same to be dispensed”.
She did so “without access to patient information” or “access to patients”, and without “taking appropriate steps to ensure that the medicines dispensed were safe and appropriate for the patient”, it said.
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It added that “in some cases”, the prescriptions “were not legally valid” as they “were missing either the signature or address of the prescriber”.
And it noted that “some instances” involved prescriptions for medicines whose stability “could not be guaranteed over the period prescribed and dispensed for, or where the dose exceeded the maximum stated in the British National Formulary”.
“Furthermore, the records entered in the pharmacy’s private prescription book did not always accurately reflect key details, such as the identity of the prescriber,” it said.
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The GPhC said Enenche was employed as a pharmacy manager at a community pharmacy from December 1, 2020, “until being summarily dismissed” in November 2021.
She had been working as a pharmacist for “approximately eight years” at the time of the GPhC’s investigation, which began following complaints from pharmacy colleagues about Enenche’s “conduct in relation to private prescriptions”.
“Acted as an intermediary”
The GPhC said Enenche’s actions breached its standards on providing person-centred care, behaving in a professional manner - “including maintaining appropriate professional and personal boundaries with people they provide care to and with others” - and demonstrating leadership.
It added that she “acted as an intermediary between the doctors who prescribed the medicines, and not as a pharmacist providing patient centred care”.
“Unlikely to repeat”
While the regulator found “no discernible financial motivation” in Enenche’s conduct, it stressed that “as a pharmacist with approximately eight years’ experience at the time”, her actions “nonetheless posed a risk of harm to patients and had the potential to undermine public confidence in the profession”.
It added, however, that it was “satisfied” that Enenche “now understands her professional obligations and is unlikely to repeat her actions”.
The committee warned Enenche that she “must, in future, ensure that any prescription she reviews is legally valid and is safe and appropriate for the patient before dispensing occurs”.
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She must also maintain “accurate records of any private prescriptions dispensed, and of any information material to the consideration of whether the medicines in question are safe and appropriate”, it said.
The warning will be published on the GPhC’s register and available for 12 months.
Read the determination in full here.
