pharmacy laws and regulations

[Raoul]

"please refer to proprietary names for the classification granted under the marketing authorisation."
what does it actually means? check whats found on the product itself?

[Raoul]

the ointment is POM i double checked today.

[Raoul]

ok guys, here is the summary of my day
1- should be starting at 9:00, but went to work around half eight, so prepared all the methadone scripts for today, double checked yesterday's scripts were registered. then the pharmacist prepared the methadone" around 30 patients". had a new locum in the pharmacy today, he is quite nice but a bit slow when checking Rx. my day was as usual doing a mix of paper work, recieving the stocks and arranging them on the shelves, labeling...etc

2-anyways what was new today is i had to order a specific brand product for amlodipine and liperone" not sure about the name" which we had them both but in a different brand than what the patient requested. could someone explain to me the reason behind it?
3- why do we keep sildenafil and cialas in the cupboard? i know they are SLS medicines and i do understand why as they are expensive and NHS wont be happy to prescribe it for all ppl! i double checked with the locum but he was not aware why other drugs ( another 10 or so) are also SLS, and i am actually confused what does SLS drug mean and why the other drugs are SLS? anyone willing to enlighten me?

4- sad news is i will be working tomorrow with a another new locum and its gonna be em only in the dispensary with another girl workin on the till. jesus christ, i hope things go alright, dunno how i will cope with labeling and getting the items for the pharmacist to check i am still new into this thing, have not finished 1 week training and i feel i am given a big responsibility that i would not be able to handle! i mean if the permenant pharmacist is around he would understand that, but a new locum coming tomorrow and expecting to have trained stuff while the other 2 trained guys aint turning up tomorrow! i can imagine him screaming from now

5- i noticed pharmacist barely councel patients on the use of their medications, I DO UNDERSTAND WHY AS THE PHARMACY IS BLOODY BUSY ALL THE TIME! but this contradicts what those lecturers have been telling us at uni since year 1! i mean how they should councel if the patient himself does not ask for help and the pharmacy is very busy? on the other side, when some patients come asking for some medicine to use for a minor illness, he responds well to the enquirey.

anyways that was all what came into my mind during this day.
i hope if someone read and enlighten me more about today's and yesterday's Qs.
cheers

[Steve G]

Originally Posted by Ray

the ointment is POM i double checked today.

Most of the available chloramphenicol ointments are POM, but some are P - there's an Optrex one, and I think Numark have one. It's the same with the eye drops.

[SolomonQ]

2. dont know wat u mean by leperone, but some patients prefer the taste of certain brands over others, most common preference to brands occurs with soluble co-codamol or paracetamol effev. (also the amlodipine required could have been the besilate form, pharmacies normally keep the maleate form???)

3. SLS means that these medicines are not allowed to be prescrbed on the NHS unless they are for certain group of patients e.g. one of the groups tadalafil and sildenafil can be given to is a diabetic patient, the SLS needs to be on the rx because i think it indicates the Doctor/prescriber knows this about the restriceted use of this medicines under NHS, also im surprised why you asked this as out of 500-odd items you mustav had quite a few green rx for these, and also alot of people get these prescribed privately, cost about £35 for 4 tabs but people are willing to pay, expect these sorta rx on friday or around the weekened.

4. unfortunately thats the truth these days, thats how pharmacies run. locums and untrained staff(no offence to you). would never happen in say a doctors or dentist surgery.

5. unfortunately the uni "lied", it would be your duty to counsel patients about their medicines but does the pharmacist get time to do this, like you said "no", HOWEVER majority of the work as a HOSPITAL pharmacist is clinical checking, counselling and everything else you were thaught at uni, in community pharmacy its more about dispensing, knowing multiples of 28 etc... the pharmacy owners get their money from the rx dispensed they would be happy if the pharmacist waste his/her time counselling patients (which would atleast take 5 minutes)

*about the chloramphenicol ointment, like most nwly "pom to p" "switched" medicnes the P medicine is only for ceratin brands e.g. you cant sell patients dispensing packs of naproxen, only feminax ultra (naproxen 250mg) is allowed similarly you cant sell just any chlorampheicol eye drops to the public they must have that license, which is normally obtained by brands e.g. optrex chloramphenicol,

*&^also note paracetamol 500mg tablets or capsules are POM technically, but if sold in pack size max of 32 they are P, and max pack size 16 they are GSL, go check in the pharmacy next time largest pack size being sold would be 32 and the max quantity that can be supplied is 100, also go and check say tesco/asda normal store or poundshop, they sell paracetmol in packs of 16, I havent tried this out but they arent allowed to sell more than 100 tablets to any one person at one time. (NOTE: this does not apply to dispersable tablets.)

[Raoul]

2- i think it was etodolac 600 or something like that.
3- thank you, yes everyday i get around 3-4 SLS sildenafil or cialis NHS Rx, just wanted to double check.

thank you, this explains a lot, yes i noticed paracetamol 500, 16 tablets on the shelves at Aldi, while 100 tablets are POM. i tried buying 3 and they had no problem, then i returned 2 pretending i mistakenly took 3 from the shelves, hence end up with 1 box

[Raoul]

i am aware some of you" pharmacist", if not all, had some pre-reg students before and had a plan to sort them up through out the year.
i explained my situation before, i got this training in a pharmacy but the permanent pharmacist was moved to a newly opened branch on my 3rd day and now different locums come daily" so far i have met 4 within 7 working days, but i guess its gonna be them all the times.
i find it a bit hard to go along with all of them, each person has his own way of doing things and only come to fill in the hours needed and go home.

can someone provide me with a PLAN or TOPICS to be covered so i WORK on them during the coming 2 months and make sure to ask the available locum for help and to explain things to me?
even some bullet points might be useful as a start but if any of you pharmacist have a PRE-reg plan this will be greatly appreciated.

thanks