Dispensing plan for European prescriptions

[Nik]

How are you supposed to find out if a prescriber is genuine ? On top of that drugs licensed in different European countries may be under different generic/brand name. This all seems a bit stupid - what are the chances of actually completing such a prescription successfully ?

[paul2008]

How are you supposed to find out if a prescriber is genuine ? On top of that drugs licensed in different European countries may be under different generic/brand name. This all seems a bit stupid - what are the chances of actually completing such a prescription successfully ?

Almost all UK generic names (BANNs) are identical to the Internationally approved generic names (INNs) (see the list on the WHO website or in a Martindale) so s long as it is prescribed generically any pharmacist anywhere in the world should be able to dispense the correct product. IIRC the Europeam Medicines Authority was puts pressure on companies to use the same brand name across the EU unless they want to file separate liscence applications in every country.

I personally feel that being able to decipher and understand prescriptions is the core of what a pharmacist does, if pharmacists can't do that why should they offer "enhanced" services.

How do you knnow if a prescription is genuine or not anyway? Especially locums who do not know the prescribers in the area. I think in the UK pharmacists are spoilt: most prescriptions nicely printed on standard forms. If a patient comes down from another part of the country into your 24 hour pharmacy at 3 pm and needs for example viagra, how are you going to tell if it is a genuine prescription? On the other hand an elderly holiday maker comes in for a refill of her thiazide and calcium channel blocker, perhaps on a repeat prescription like they have in places where you pay to see a doctor.

[Nik]

The other thing is dosing - do all european countries use latin abbreviations like tds or tid, qqh, prn ? You can't exactly call the prescriber up...

[Asterix]

Read pj and a very good article in relation to EU scripts.

It related to the fact of how difficult it could be to communicate through say a Austrian receptionist. Secondly, what about if the drug is same but it's a different active ingredient and how can you possibly communicate to patients?

[Rafael]

Google 100 hour pharmacies, and find out!
a time will come when you have to rely on yourself! show some effort at least.....

[paul2008]

Read pj and a very good article in relation to EU scripts.

It related to the fact of how difficult it could be to communicate through say a Austrian receptionist. Secondly, what about if the drug is same but it's a different active ingredient and how can you possibly communicate to patients?

How can it be the same product with a different active ingredient? I don't think the regulatory authorities allow you to sell products with anything other that the stated active ingredient inside. True you may have problems with branded prescribing (if you do not stock that brand) in which case as the EU/UK does not allow generic substitution you cannot dispense without contacting the prescriber.

For example a prescription for Kaletra (old brand name still used outside EU) tablets cannot be dispensed because the brand in the UK and the EU is now Aluvia (r), while a prescription for Lopinavir/Ritonavir (generic) can be dispensed. Not the best example but the best I have at present.

The other thing is dosing - do all European countries use latin abbreviations like tds or tid, qqh, prn ? You can't exactly call the prescriber up...

Its likely as the Latin abbreviations originated in countries where Latin was spoken as an academic/legal/medical language (Europe) but I really don't know, you have access to the patient, you can call the prescriber in some circumstances, I admit there are problems here but as a professional, problem solving is part of your daily job before bonuses. Communication is also a core skill of a pharmacist, from first hand experiance I can tell you that language barriers make it very difficult but this is a decision the individual pharmacist will have to make in each situation.

Google 100 hour pharmacies, and find out!
a time will come when you have to rely on yourself! show some effort at least.....

My point exactly. Actually I was thinking 24 hour for some reason, forgot 100 hour closes at 10. I forgot that there are no 24 hour pharmacies here. I must have arrived in a civilised place,

The law allows a pharmacist to legally dispense these prescriptions but a pharmacist is never under any obligation to dispense even if s/he is professionally happy with the prescription (except under NHS rules which are rather unique to the UK and do not apply to the rest of Europe).

[johannes]

Read pj and a very good article in relation to EU scripts.

It related to the fact of how difficult it could be to communicate through say a Austrian receptionist. Secondly, what about if the drug is same but it's a different active ingredient and how can you possibly communicate to patients?

Asterix, it seems very likely that Austrian's speak English well enough to clear the questions.
The Austrians's. lol

[Defblade]

How do you knnow if a prescription is genuine or not anyway? Especially locums who do not know the prescribers in the area.

We save special attention for anything vaguely dodgy - and extra special for diazepam etc.

There are usually giveaways - not least of which is that the person usually gets plain greedy and writes up for LOTS of their chosen drug

I'd say a bigger problem with actual genuine prescribers writing real scripts for themselves....

[paul2008]

We save special attention for anything vaguely dodgy - and extra special for diazepam etc.

There are usually giveaways - not least of which is that the person usually gets plain greedy and writes up for LOTS of their chosen drug

I'd say a bigger problem with actual genuine prescribers writing real scripts for themselves....

a previous post suggested that if you cannot call the prescriber there is no way of determining if it is dodgy or not, my point is a script from the EU is no different from one presented to a locum pharmacist late at night, except that NHS rules may mean that you can't turn away the local patient late at night. Just because it is written in the EU and not the UK a pharmacist does not suddenly lose his powers of observation

[jaymags]

It would be a good idea to use a bar code system on all EU 'scripts like we have already got, scan it in and all the information is there. The computer boffins, I'm sure, will come up with a system to transcend all continental barriers. Isn't this why frusemide was changed to furosemide etc.?