UK gets dispensing
June 24, 2010
THE UK Department of Health
has announced it will trial a new
pharmaceutical dispensing machine,
Medcentre, manufactured by
PharmaTrust, across selected public
hospitals this year, that if successful
could see its eventual roll out to
community pharmacies in 2011.
“We are deploying the machines
in hospitals, but the intention is to
get enough data to inform the DH
of safety,” said PharmaTrust’s
executive director Peter Ellis.
“We then hope the government
will give us the necessary changes
to allow us entry into community
pharmacy,” he added.
The Medcentre can stock up to
2,000 medicines and features a
live video link which allows
pharmacists to remotely oversee
medicines dispensing, a first for
the UK where existing laws require
a pharmacist to be in charge of
every pharmacy.
However legislation which came
into effect four years ago has left
scope for the secretary of state to
provide for a single pharmacist to
oversee multiple pharmacies.
Although the remote supervision
scheme has come under fire from
pharmacy industry bodies, the
Medsafe system may in fact fasttrack
remote supervision legislation,
with the results of the hospital trials
set to, in a large part, decide its fate.
In its own defense PharmaTrust
has said that Medsafe was never
aimed at replacing pharmacists,
but rather “freeing-up” their time
to allow them to move more into
patient focused services.
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