New national guidelines
May 19, 2010
THE new national Pharmacy
Board of Australia has endorsed the
use of the Pharmacy Guild’s Project
STOP for reporting of possible
pseudoephedrine diversion, as part
of new draft guidelines for
pharmacists issued yesterday.
The Board is inviting feedback on
the proposals, with the three
guidelines covering ‘dispensing
medicines’, ‘specialised supply
arrangements’ and ‘practice
specific issues’
The dispensing guideline also
advises that pharmacists must be
aware of the standards published
by the SHPA and PSA.
It covers safe dispensing and
labelling procedures and “providing
a good pharmaceutical service,” as
well as addressing the training and
roles of dispensary assistants.
A range of issues are covered
including internet and mail order
dispensing, under which the
guideline states that the pharmacist
must obtain sufficient clinical
information from patients -
including their current medications
- to ensure safe dispensing.
The supply of a Consumer
Medicines Information leaflet is
recommended whenever a new
medicine is supplied, and the
guideline also details procedures
for extemporaneous dispensing,
recommendations for incident
recording and labelling of
dispensed medicines.
There’s also a clause on patient
counselling as ell as the handling of
dispensing errors.
Workload for a pharmacist
according to the guidelines should
be an average of 150 scripts over a
9am-6pm day, with a dispensary
assistant recommended for levels of
up to 200 daily scripts, and an
additional pharmacist for at least
part of the day at higher levels.
There’s a separate draft guideline
focusing on miscellaneous issues,
with a clause on pseudoephedrine
stating that only one package is to
be supplied at a time, with stock
levels kept to no more than one
week’s supply - and the use of
Project STOP to help pharmacists
determine whether pseudoephedrine
should be supplied.
This guideline also covers drugs
of abuse, supply of S2 and S3
products as well as complementary
and alternative therapy when
practised by pharmacists or other
people in the pharmacy.
It also prohibits the sale or supply
of tobacco products as
“inconsistent with the practice of
pharmacy, and is considered as
unprofessional conduct”.
The third guideline, on
specialised supply arrangements,
covers such items as dose
administration aids, automated
dose packing systems and periodic
administration of medicines.
Comments on the guidelines are
due by close of business on 14 Jun
to natboards@dhs.vic.gov.au, and
following finalisation they will come
into force from 01 July.
See pharmacyboard.gov.au.
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