Rebalancing Board Q&A on dispensing error defence

Ken Jarrold

The Rebalancing Medicines Legislation and Pharmacy Regulation Programme Board has provided an extensive Q&A on the new legal defence for inadvertent dispensing errors, which comes into force on 16 April 2018.

The Board explains what the new legal order does, why it has been introduced, why it only applies to registered pharmacies, its likely effect on patient safety, and how it affects unregulated staff, such as counter assistants and delivery drivers.

In a statement, Ken Jarrold, chair of the Rebalancing Board, said: “This is a great success for the board, but it is important that pharmacy professionals working in other settings should also be able to make use of these new defences.

“That is why the government will shortly be consulting on similar proposals to extend these defences to pharmacy professionals working in hospitals and other pharmacy services.

“The consultation will also include proposals to clarify the roles of responsible pharmacists and superintendent pharmacists and I encourage the pharmacy community to engage with the consultation to ensure that we have got it right.”

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Citation
The Pharmaceutical Journal, Rebalancing Board Q&A on dispensing error defence;Online:DOI:10.1211/PJ.2018.20204646

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