The chief pharmacy officer at the council is raising awareness in the profession of some patient safety issues which have been raised.
In a letter to pharmacists, Roz Gittins, the chief pharmacy officer of the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), has raised concerns about a number of patient safety risks.
The letter covers diversion of medicines by staff, checking addresses when supplying medicines at a distance, supplying medicines overseas, the advertising and promotion of medicines, supplies of methadone and patient information leaflets, as well as yellow card reporting for GLP-1s.
The letter was written to “raise awareness of some emerging issues which have led to concerns being raised with us”. She went on to emphasise that “pharmacy owners, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have a responsibility to make sure there are appropriate arrangements for the management of medicines.”
More care
Pharmacists need to check addresses and be careful when sending drugs either through the post or abroad.
She pointed pharmacists to safeguards when providing pharmacy services at a distance. “Pharmacies and their teams need to undertake the relevant checks concerning the applicable laws of the country they are sending medicines to,” she wrote adding that the Department of Health and Social Care list of medicines that cannot be exported from the UK should also be checked and the potential impact on medicines availability carefully considered before sending medicines outside the UK.
She also highlighted the recent joint enforcement notice sent by the council, making clear that adverts for named prescription-only medicines for weight management are prohibited.
Finally, she said that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is asking pharmacy staff to make Yellow Card reports detailing suspected side effects to GLP-1 medicines. She added that the Yellow Card Biobank may get in touch with staff reporting cases of acute pancreatitis to ask for help to contact patients to invite them to take part in a research study into the role genetics plays in side effects to medicines.
