RPSGB president Steve Churton has pledged to tackle “manifestly unfair” laws that make dispensing errors  criminal offences.

The RPSGB president admitted he had made dispensing errors and vowed to free pharmacists from the threat of criminal prosecution for such mistakes.

His comments came as support continued to flood in for Elizabeth Lee – the locum punished with a suspended jail sentence for a dispensing  error.

The RPSGB president said: “I freely admit, I’m not a perfect pharmacist and I very much doubt any one of our members could say...they have never made a mistake…That is why the current legislation has to change.”

The RPSGB had approached pharmacy minister Phil Hope in a bid to push for decriminalisation, Mr Churton said. However, he appeared cautious over the chances of forcing a law change. “How persuasive it will be I don’t know because I haven’t had the conversation. But, I hope for it to be persuasive.”

The RPSGB president said it was “heartening” to see so many pharmacists demanding a law change in light of Mrs Lee’s ordeal. He also hit back at critics who claimed the Society had not done enough to support Mrs Lee who was sentenced at the Old Bailey earlier this month.

Mr Churton said: “Any perceptions of silence on our behalf is due to the fact we have regulatory responsibilities.”

Mrs Lee was sentenced for dispensing beta-blockers instead of steroids to an elderly woman who later died.

She bore no factual or legal responsibility for the woman’s death, the court heard. However, she was still sentenced under terms of the 1968 Medicines Act.

Mr Churton said pressurised working conditions were a factor in dispensing errors. This was “not good enough” for pharmacists or patients, he said.