§ Mr. JannerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many(a) men, (b) women and (c) children are known (i) to have been injured and (ii) to have died as a result of pharmacists' errors in the provision of drugs or medicines, in each of the last five years for which records are available.
§ Dr. MawhinneyThis information is not available centrally. All the evidence suggests that professional standards in community pharmacies remain high and dispensing errors are kept to a minimum. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society employs a team of inspectors whose role is to ensure that those standards are maintained.
§ Mr. JannerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if she will now institute new requirements for pharmacists, whether by checking or otherwise, to minimise or to remove the risks of error in their provision of drugs or medicines in accordance with doctors' prescriptions;
(2) what assessment she has made of whether United Kingdom requirements for the checking of prescriptions issued by doctors before the drugs or medicines are given to patients are (a) adequate and satisfactory and (b) in accordance with EC requirements;
(3) if she will carry out an inquiry into the methods for checking of prescriptions by pharmacists, to remove or minimise the possibility or error in the provision of drugs or medicines in accordance with doctors' prescriptions.
§ Dr. MawhinneyThe code of ethics of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society includes guidance which is designed specifically to eliminate errors in the checking and dispensing of prescriptions. The society employs a team of inspectors whose role is to identify any lapses in standards of performance. These arrangements have helped to keep errors in the dispensing of prescriptions to a minimum and I see no reason to change them.
§ Mr. JannerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what records she keeps to ascertain how many pharmacists query doctors' prescriptions, whether because the same are illegible or otherwise.
§ Dr. MawhinneyThis information is not available centrally. Pharmacists are encouraged to maintain good communications with general practitioners to ensure that, where questions arise, patients get their correct medicine.