Mds

[hibernia]

No legal reason why anyone can't hand out meds.

No, until they hand out the wrong ones and then who is responsible?
Would you like to take an assortment of unlabelled, unidentifed tablets from anybody?

Care homes have a duty of care to the patients. A nurse is legally responsible for their actions and so is a pharmacist. If a pharmacist makes a mistake in filling the MDS and the patient gets the wrong meds then they take the rap. It is hard to know what charge would cover taking that responsibility but I would say more than £5.

[Merlyn]

Been there on this, got the T-shirt. Used to earn my living advising on the care of medicines in Care Homes and training their staff.

If the pharmacist makes a bog of filling the MDS, then it's the same as any other prescription.
If a Care Worker gives the wrong medicine ..... can't read the label ..... then it's a) them and b) the Home, for not ensuring that they could. Unless, of course, the pharmacist has labelled so badly etc.
If the Care Worker is a registered nurse then the same applies. He or she is entitled to rely on the pharmacist filling the MDS correctly.

[hibernia]

If the Care Worker is a registered nurse then the same applies. He or she is entitled to rely on the pharmacist filling the MDS correctly.

I don't have your experience of care homes and I agree totally with you but my point is that the pharmacist is taking on the responsibility of filling the MDS properly, which is a task that requires a lot of effort and concentration and is doing it for no reward.
If you were getting well paid I could understand it, but it has become a case of having to do it and to do it for free because everybody else is doing it and it is the same in the community. I asked a public health nurse why so many patient now 'needed' MDS. Her answer was 'patients love them.' Patients also love fags, booze and fast food but it doesn't mean they 'need' them.

MDS have a role for a small number of patients but they shouldn't be the norm for everyone.

[Merlyn]

It is indeed a task which requires effort and concentration and like you I'm "bothered" if I see why my colleagues should do it for no reward.

I'm not sure that patients do love MDS; a small number find them very useful though. Parkinsons patients, unless the dosing situation since my time, are a case in point.

I agree that they are not the answer for everyone, or even everyone with several medications. A check list to hang on the kitchen or bedroom wall may well be all that's required.

[Fleegle]

I do three. That's three more than I would like and that's more than enough. Will not be doing any more. I turn away requests for MDS because no matter what I have read on this thread, they do not make money, are an accident waiting to happen and frankly are more bother than they are worth. I refuse to supply methadone, or any other free legal junkie substance either for the same reasons. In doing so I will probably avoid being prosecuted in the criminal courts.

I do not get up in the morning to go to work to be abused by care home 'nurses' or junkies Full Stop.

Fleeg.