Pharmacy Daily | VPA caution over alterations

THE Victorian Pharmacy Authority (VPA) has formally cautioned a pharmacist who had altered his premises without seeking approval.

According to the VPA's latest circular, eight panel hearings were held between Mar and Apr 2020, into allegations that licensees had failed to meet their responsibilities to comply with the Pharmacy Regulation Act and/or good pharmacy practice at registered premises within the state.

In one case relating to alterations, a compounding room had been established outside the dispensary, along with the relocation of a staff room and changes to an area dedicated to the filling of dose administration aids (DAAs).

"There were numerous other failures to comply with legislation, practice standards and guidelines for good pharmacy practice," the circular noted, with the Panel also requesting written procedures for the management of Schedule 8 poisons, drug refrigerator temperature monitoring and complex compounding at the pharmacy.

Another case resulted in a formal reprimand, with the packing of hazardous medicines into DAAs in an unsuitable environment, non-adherence to cleaning and maintenance protocols in an automated dose packing system, and no records being made of the pharmacist who checked the DAAs.

Again the premises had also been significantly altered without requesting and obtaining the approval of the Authority.

MEANWHILE the VPA also highlighted a number of recent cases involving significant numbers of fraudulent prescriptions, including computer-generated and handwritten scripts for five, 10 or 15 fentanyl patches which were presented at 60 different pharmacies.

Fewer than half of those pharmacies chose not to dispense the prescriptions, even though all of the fake scripts were purportedly issued by NSW medical practitioners meaning it was highly unlikely the pharmacists would have any familiarity with the handwriting of the doctors.

Oxycontin 40mg tablets were also dispensed on about 90 fraudulent computer-generated prescriptions at 20 different pharmacies, seven of which dispensed the fake scripts on between 7 and 15 occasions.