Rx almost year old for antibiotic

[gonzan]

Hi,
I need some clarification. It happened few days ago. I received this Rx for antibiotic almost a year old (08/2009). I said it is out of date (I work in community as MCA) and advised going to WIC. I also said it is for an antibiotic therefore he needs to have the Tx reviewed by the GP...anyway the patient said "oh the doctor made the mistake" (it was computer generated and his repeat part was also dated as such) but since it is up to pharmacist discretion regarding professional decision and because I was asked by the pharmacist what's that i explained it. The pharmacist said it is ok and dispensed it. My concern is was it necessary? I actually did not ask for he reasoning behind it because i know many pharmacists would refuse the script. I am concerned because I study pharmacy so I won't make decision as yet although in my opinion i would refuse the script and it seemed that the patient was not very frustrated anyway. I considered legal issues here + availability of doctors at WIC.
Please advise was it ok to accept it?
Thank you

[crit care]

i thought that FP10s legally were only valid for 6 months from the date it was prescribed. I probably would have refused to dispense it or got in touch with the doctor to confirm it was an error or just someone only getting round to dispensing their script. Although i have known patients to get a script for antibiotics "just in case" they need some further down the line!

[gonzan]

i thought that FP10s legally were only valid for 6 months from the date it was prescribed. I probably would have refused to dispense it or got in touch with the doctor to confirm it was an error or just someone only getting round to dispensing their script. Although i have known patients to get a script for antibiotics "just in case" they need some further down the line!

Thanks for quickie reply. I know that some patients are prescribed antibiotics just in case of reocurrence but the patient was fine and probably would not mind going to doctors for new Rx. Anyway so confusing when pharmacists do diffrent things to solve the same issue. I asked the pharmacist what you gonna do about it and he said "I will have it changed by GP, I will contact the GP to send new prescription". But I was not digging why he did what he did because I don't want to came up with wrong decisions at the interview for pre-reg year.