The Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK has submitted its response to the ‘Pharmacy legislation on dispensing errors and organisational governance’ consultation.

On the 19th June 2018, the Department of Health and Social Care issued a public consultation seeking comments and views on two draft proposals, developed over a period of time by the Rebalancing Medicines Legislation and Pharmacy Regulation Programme Board.

The draft proposals related firstly, to extending the defences for inadvertent preparation and dispensing errors already in place for pharmacy professionals working in registered pharmacies, to these staff working in hospitals and other places where pharmacy services are delivered, such as care homes and prisons.

Secondly, they related to clarifying and strengthening the organisational governance requirements for registered pharmacies. This is particularly looking at the roles of Responsible Pharmacists and Superintendent Pharmacists.

Commenting on the APTUK response President, Tess Fenn said:

“APTUK fully supports extending the dispensing error defences in place for pharmacy professionals working in registered pharmacies to our colleagues working in hospitals and other settings. This is an important step forward and APTUK are pleased that this aspect of the Rebalancing Programme Board work is coming close to fruition. Patients expect that pharmacy professionals can learn from incidents that may have caused harm to make sure they do not happen again. The draft proposals also enable removing the fear from possible automatic prosecution for inadvertent dispensing mistakes and encourages an honest and open culture for sharing and learning from mistakes and importantly from near misses.  APTUK also supports the strengthening of organisational governance within the proposals for the draft Pharmacy (Responsible Pharmacists, Superintendent Pharmacists etc.) Order 2018 . It is entirely appropriate that the Superintendent Pharmacist has the responsibility to ensure that the right skill mix of staff is proportionate for the services provided by the pharmacy and that these are safe for patients. We look forward to seeing the outcome of the consultations to support the innovation and transformation of pharmacy services for the benefit of all but most importantly for patients”

To view the full APTUK response click here