THE NSW Health Care Complaints Commission in April this year had prosecuted Nicholas Bova, a compounding pharmacist and the proprietor and pharmacist-in-charge at Bova Compounding Chemist in Sydney's southern suburbs (PD 15 Apr) before the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal which has now found him guilty of professional misconduct.
The Tribunal found that Bova failed to take reasonable steps to clarify whether Dextran T(500) sulfate was appropriate and safe for use in the human eye and dispensed ten bottles for a single patient when he should have been aware that the supply of ten bottles was an excessive quantity for a single patient and that he ought to have known that the bottles were to be used for other patients.
Bova's pharmacy was also found to have failed to comply with a large number of regulatory requirements including issues around supply and storage of restricted substances including S8 products as well as the keeping of a drug register for drugs of addiction or for dexamphetamine, codeine and ketamine.
The Tribunal ruled that Bova's registration have certain restrictions on his practice: he is not to personally compound any pharmaceutical products for human use, not to allow the bulk extemporaneous compounding of any pharmaceutical product for the purposes of supply for human use nor is he to allow the compounding of codeine, dexamphetamin, testosterone, ketamine or oxytocin for either human or veterinary use.
In addition, he has been ordered to prepare a CPD plan for a period of three years, submitted annually to the Pharmacy Council of NSW and accrue 60 or more points during each 12 month period.
The council is also to appoint an auditor to conduct two audits over eighteen months to ensure compliance with the Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Act 1966 and the Poisons and Therapeutic Regulation 2008.
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