Pharmacy Daily | Pharmacist fell short of expectations

A VICTORIAN Civil and Administrative Tribunal has reprimanded and suspended a pharmacist over multiple instances of professional misconduct.

Suk Yee Lee was found to have dispensed Schedule 4 medicines without a prescription for her personal use, made dispensing errors, breached cold chain procedures, inappropriately conducted herself in relation to the supply and storage of S8 medicines, and provided inaccurate information regarding her recency of practice when renewing her professional registration.

The Tribunal heard that between 28 Nov 2016 and 05 Aug 2018, Lee dispensed quantities of drospirenone and ethinylestradiol, celecoxib, esomeprazole and zamatil ointment, without prescriptions for her own use, recording them under the name 'Miss Sue Lei' in the Fred Dispense system.

"It was very concerning to us that Lee not only persistently self-prescribed but by recording the name in a name other than her own arguably added another layer of deception to her conduct," the Tribunal said.

"Concerningly, she initially minimised her conduct to the [Pharmacy] Board [of Australia] when she described having acted in the way she did on a copy-cat basis - apparently understanding that others in the practice were doing so."

The Tribunal also heard that Lee granted a patient access to opioid replacement therapy as takeaway doses, without proper authorisation from the pharmacy's management.

The patient who received the opioid replacement therapy reported to other staff at the pharmacy that Lee had dispensed suboxone films, which were meant to be for live dose, rather than for take home use.

The Tribunal noted that when Lee submitted her application to renew her registration in Nov 2015, she declared that she had met the recency of practice requirements of having worked as a pharmacist for at least 450 hours between 30 Nov 2012 and 30 Nov 2015, despite not having worked as a pharmacist between 03 Apr 2012 and the date she submitted her renewal application.

The Tribunal noted that Lee has not practiced as a pharmacist since 29 Nov 2018, and currently holds non-practising registration, before suspending her registration for four months and issuing a reprimand.