Prescrption with controlled medicine - Essay Example

PHARMACISTS’ OF CONDUCT Background information A new trend has been put in place in Australia. Pharmacists tend to avoid to adhering to the rules of medicine, poisons, and therapeutic goods Act of 2008 and its regulations. For example, some people have prescribed medicine to patients without the chief health number (society, 2012). This is not allowed under the legality of prescription of medicine in the territory of Australian capital. This paper aims at addressing the issue. It outlines ways of dealing with the situation and techniques of preventing future incidences.

Introduction The law of the land in Australia is divided into many areas. Similarly, legislation on the drugs and medicine practices is divided based on commonwealth and the states. The commonwealth laws are classified into schedules. There are various schedules, which, are based on their effects on the public and which, control both the production and distribution of the products (Chaar, et al., 2005). Focusing on the discussion, schedule eight provides rules and regulations on prescription of controlled medicine by practitioners (Australia, 2010).

Under the same, it is important for the medical practitioners to prescribe medicine for a genuine therapeutic person affected. In this case, a valid approval number is essential in validating the scripts. Lack of approval number may result into penalties on the side of pharmacists. According to Bessell & Silagy (2002), the chief health officer has to approve the script for patients who have been either under controlled drugs for a period of about 2 months or more. The same applies to patients considered drug dependant.

Solutions for the issue Pharmacists that operate within the stipulations of the code of conduct by ACT are exposed to the risk of severe punishment. Penalties apply to those who do not adhere to the guidelines on prescribing medicine to patients. It is obvious that prescribers have to prescribe the medicine with a number authorized by the chief health officer. To avoid any penalty, the pharmacist is supposed to comply with the rules and regulations set by ACT. He or she has to give medicine that has a recognition number from the chief health officer (society, 2012 p. 200). The number is meant to validate the medicine.

On the side of the patients, it will be important for one to confirm that the prescription is accompanied with a valid number from the chief officer. Though there are no penalties on the side of patients, use of such medicines may have an impact on their health (Australia, 2010). Secondly, the relevant authority may conduct several checklists in pharmacies to establish whether pharmacists serve the patients accordingly. These lists may provide data on how they dispense the medicine together with the CHO number assigned to each.

The head of the pharmacy department has to review the records from time to time. This is a way of ensuring that all persons in the field of public health adhere to all the regulations on issuance of medicine. Use of questioners and frequent interviews may also help in keeping check on the performance of the pharmacists. Educating the public on the importance of taking medicine, which is prescribed properly, may be a solution to this matter. Once they discover prescription required by the ACT, they may remind the prescribers in case they may give out medicine without the chief health officer’s number.

Therefore, it is necessary to re-train some of the health workers in pharmacists on how to prescribe medicine. Bessell & Silagy (2002) argue that some of the medical practitioners forget the best way of prescribing medicine and drugs. Therefore, fresh education on prescribition may restore the situation. They should be able to embrace the art of prescribing without disputes. Similarly, some medications may require a different method of prescription. Such a situation may lead to demand of education on the same (Australia, 2010).

To do away with the problem of delays, a patient may call the prescriber on phone to obtain the required number. This is the easiest way of getting the number. However, it is risky since it lacks one’s presence thus can result into fear of entrusted information. The second action that one may use to solve the matter is by visiting the nearest hospital to obtain the number from a chief health officer. Another alternative is to seek help from any prescriber who may sign a declaration form for a period of less than two months (Leonhart, et al., 2010).Conclusion Medical prescription is an important aspect in the field of health care.

It forms part of the treatment process. However, some prescribers have not adhered to the rules and regulations of the medicine, poisons, and therapeutic goods Act of 2008 ACT. It is evident that in order to prevent such future incidences, prescriber are education, public sensitization and pharmacists’ initiatives to do what is best are some of the measures of curbing the situation. In addition, most of the prescribers need retraining on some important areas of their BibliographyAustralia, P. G. o., 2010. Quality care pharmacy standards:quality management system for pharmacies in Australia.

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Pharmacists manual: an informational outline of the controlled substances Act. Drud enformeent adminstration, 2(13), pp. 1-85.Society, A. P., 2012. Guidelines for the continued dispensing of eligible prescribed medicines by pharmacists. Pharmacy journals, 1(1), pp. 1-16.