Chaotic workplace

[Idontknow]

Hi,

I started as a dispenser at a new place a couple of months ago (I moved from one part of UK to another) and I only work 2/3 days a week. Theres a couple of things that go on there that I'm not 100% sure on and just want some advice on how to handle the situation.

1. Warfarin in dosettes box.. doctor's surgery is apparently aware and happy for it to happen. Am I okay or within my right to refuse to do this?

2. There is not much in the way of data protection.
- are addresses still okay to confirm patient identity? (the 2 previous place I worked changed to using date of birth)
- can we still fax requests to surgeries? Is this allowed.
- shop staff usually have to answer the phone which usually means in ear shot of other customers.. and then discussing or confirming patient details on the front counter
- are counter staff allowed to access PMR? (I thought they were but for some reason I feel like I've read That their not supposed to)
- am I right in thinking that confidential waste should be locked away and not just left in bags around the building

3. Unqualified counter assistants selling P medicines without checking with the pharmacist... (This is probably mainly due to him being unwilling to assist)

4. There is a guy who is a first year Pharmacy student and sells P medicines without checking with anyone.. he clearly isn't learning about the safe sale of medicine so why should he be allowed to do so unsupervised.. I've stepped into a sale of cold/flu medicines twice with him as he wasn't finding out the right information about the customer. I understand that he's doing pharmacy degree but that shouldnt immediately qualify him seeing as he's openly said he's in it for the money.


The place is just a mess .There is no management from the owner/pharmacist and hes taken on so much it's unmanageable; almost 300 trays, 14000 items by signing everyone up but he/we just can't cope. It usually takes 2 days to process a script, then a further 1/2 days to dispense it and then it sits in a basket for almost 5 days unless the patient comes in before that. Because he also has about 30 daily blue scripts that take up a lot of the time...

Any help would be appreciated

[mcitr]

Dispenser.

I noticed your previous thread. You should not be making any entries whatsoever in the CD register. None, zero, nada, nilch.

2. It's completely against GDPR to fax (or receive) anything whatsoever. NHS England and your CCG will have sent an email out in May saying this, but your new branch has probably forgotten. The reason for this, the basics is it isn't secure and not 'proportionate' i.e. the patient can order another way. In other CCGs this has been erroneously interpreted as you can ring through or drive bits of paper, but this really should be illegal for the same reason and others besides that I won't go into. Not everyone agrees on this. Patient data is special data. You'll still get surgeries and misinformed people usually at out of hours saying it's legal. It is not. I worked with a couple of pharmacists that still accept faxes (up to them). The NHS has cottoned onto the silly ones still using fax machines on a regular basis and there's been a clamp down and now fax machines will be 'phased out' by something like 2021. LOL.

Addresses are fine to confirm patient identity. However always bare in mind similar names e.g. Clark, Smith etc, it's fair enough to confirm with a 2nd bit of data.

Confidential waste should be locked away.

3. It doesn't matter whether they are 'qualified' or not, they are still under the guidance of the pharmacist and any remedial training is the personal and supreme responsibility of the pharmacist.

4. You need to talk to the manager discretely.

[Idontknow]

Thank you.
in reference to the CD register, in both the places I worked before (same company, 2 presmesis and I worked regularly at both) only the pharmacist had anything to do with CDs.. we would just hand a script over to them and they did the rest, including the handing out. But at this place another dispenser also writes in and is in and out of the CD cupboards.. so in a sense I just do what I'm told..
What should I do?