RPSGB Responds To MPs' Inquiry Conclusion On Over The Counter And Prescription Only Medicines, UK

Main Category: Pharmacy / Pharmacist
Article Date: 21 Jan 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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RPSGB is the professional and regulatory body for pharmacists in England, Scotland and Wales. It also regulates pharmacy technicians on a voluntary basis, which is expected to become statutory under anticipated legislation.

The Society has responsibility for a wide range of functions to assure competence and fitness to practise. These include education, registration, setting and enforcing professional standards, promoting good practice, providing support for improvement, dealing with poor performance, dealing with misconduct and removal from the register. As part of its role, the Society educates, monitors and supports pharmacists to prevent misuse of medicines.

Pharmacists and their staff are aware of possible misuse of POM and OTC medicines. Pharmacists employ various strategies to manage sales when misuse is suspected and are advised to be alert to the possibility of patients obtaining prescriptions for excessive quantities of medicines.

However, misuse of medicines is difficult to control, especially when customers can go from pharmacy to pharmacy to make purchases. Systems to share information on local patterns of misuse should be developed, involving all health professionals to help the situation. More research and evidence should be undertaken to allow factual assessment of the scale of the problem, reasons for drug misuse and dependence to prescriptions.

The APPDMG report highlights the problems that patients have in finding support for dependency to prescribed and OTC medicines. We support their call for more support for people who find themselves in this situation and would like to see robust research being undertaken into the extent of the problem.

The APPDMG rightly emphasise the dangers of fraudulent online pharmacies. The Society already works closely with the MHRA and others on tackling fraudulent online pharmacies. The Society has been at the forefront of attempting to distinguish legitimate GB-registered online pharmacies from fraudulent online pharmacies through its Internet Pharmacy Logo.

RPSGB

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