Pharmacy Daily | Pharmacist’s comeback

CANCELLED registrant, Marianne Girgis, has been given the green light to return to the profession by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, subject to a number of conditions, which will be attached to her registration for a minimum of 12 months.

Girgis, previously known by her maiden name, Tanios (PD 26 Jun 2017), had her pharmacy registration cancelled in Jun 2017 after she was found to have been dispensing medicines to a relative and herself without prescriptions between Oct 2013 and Aug 2014.

The Tribunal noted that Girgis had created false entries into the pharmacy's dispensing system to conceal her inappropriate dispensing.

Girgis self-medicated with a combination of duromine, diazepam and modavigil, which the Tribunal were told could impede her ability to function in a professional and responsible manner.

Shortly before she started self-medicating, Girgis had been diagnosed as suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, relating to repeated incidents of domestic violence at the hands of her father.

She had also been hospitalised with complications stemming form Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome in Sep 2013, and had been working an average of 12-hours a day six-days a week at the time she started to abuse prescription medications.

In Aug 2014, she was dismissed over the misappropriation of medicines, after which she found work in a rural pharmacy for 10 months, before gaining employment at a pharmacy near Sydney, in 2016.

Girgis started working at a pharmacy co-owned by her husband and brother-in-law in Aug 2016, where she worked until her registration was cancelled, during which time there were no reports of unsatisfactory conduct.

In 2018 she completed a Pharmaceutical Society of Australia Ethics and Dispensing in Pharmacy Practice course.

The Tribunal granted her permission to reapply for registration, on the condition she nominate a professional mentor approved by the Pharmacy Council of NSW for at least 12 months, inform the Council of where she is working and not work as a pharmacist in charge for at least 12 months.