THE Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has banned a pharmacist from working for a year after he allegedly swapped a female patient's narcolepsy medicine for vitamin D without her knowledge and then told her doctor it was an "experiment".
The patient's prescriptions were sent to Mina Tawadros so he could prepare her seven-day webster packs.
The Mornington Peninsula pharmacist correctly packed the 28 modafinil 100mg tabs for the first two weeks, but at the third dispense swapped the modafinil for cholecalciferol (vitamin D), which resulted in the patient suddenly falling asleep while driving the following day.
She recovered just in time but this caused her concern about her medication.
Tawadros had sought out her doctor to say he had decided to "experiment" with her meds because he did not believe she should be taking sedatives with narcolepsy medication.
Tawadros' lawyer told the tribunal that his client believed he was acting in the patient's best interests.
He also claimed he had told the patient's son about swapping her medication for vitamin D, which he said proved he had no intention of deceiving her, but the tribunal found the claim that he was "experimenting" with her medication showed otherwise.
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