Pharmacists' Code of Conduct (Essay Sample)

PHARMACISTS’ CODE OF CONDUCT
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Background information
There is a new trend that has been put in place in Australia. Pharmacists tend to avoid to adhering to the rules of medicine, poisons, and therapeutic goods Act of 2008 and its regulations. For example, some people have prescribed medicine to patients without chief health number (society, 2012). This is not allowed under legality of prescription of the medicine in the territory of Australian capital. This paper aims at addressing the issue. It outlines ways of dealing with the situation and techniques of preventing future incidences of the same nature.
Introduction
The law of the land in Australia is divided into many areas. Similarly, legislation on the drugs and medicine practices are divided on the basis of commonwealth and the states. The commonwealth laws are classified into schedules. There are various schedules, which are based on their effects to the public. They control both the production and distribution of the products (Chaar, et al., 2005).
Focusing on the discussion, schedule eight provides rules and regulations on prescription of controlled medicine by practitioners (Australia, 2010). Under the same, it is important for the medical practitioners to prescribe medicine for a genuine therapeutic person affected. In this case, a valid approval number is essential in validating the scripts. Lack of approval number may result into the penalties on the side of pharmacists. According to Bessell & Silagy (2002), the chief health officer has to approve the script for patients who have been either under the controlled drugs for a period of about 2 months or more. The same applies to patients who are considered to be drug dependant.
Solutions for the issue
Pharmacists that operate within the stipulations of code of conduct by ACT are exposed to the risk of severe punishment. Penalties apply to those who don’t adhere to the guidelines on prescribing medicine to patients. It is obvious that prescribers have to prescribe the medicine with a number authorized by the chief health officer. To avoid any penalty, the pharmacist is supposed to comply with the rules and regulations set by ACT. He or she has to give medicine that has a recognition number from the chief health officer (society, 2012 p. 200). The number is meant to validate the medicine. On the side of the patients, it will be important for one to confirm that the prescription is accompanied with a valid number from the chief officer. Though there are no penalties on the side of patients, use of such medicines may have an impact on their health (Australia, 2010).
Secondly, the relevant authority may conduct several checklists in pharmacies to establish whether pharmacists serve the patients accordingly. These lists may provide data on how they dispense the medicine together with the CHO number assigned to each. The head of the pharmacy department has to review the records from time to time. This is a way of ensuring that all the regulations on issuance of medicine are adhered to by all in the field of public health. Use of questioners and frequent interviews may also help in keeping check on the performance of the pharmacists.
Educating the public on the importance of taking medicine that is properly prescribed may be a solution to this matter under discussion. Once they discover the prescription that is required by the ACT, they may remind the prescribers in case they may give out medicine without the chief health officer’s number. Avoid Knowledge is an endless process. Therefore, it is necessary to re-train some of the health workers in pharmacists on how to prescribe medicine. Bessell & Silagy argue that some of the medical practitioners forget the best way of prescribing medicine and drugs (2002). Therefore, fresh education on the same may restore the situation. They should be able to embrace to the art of prescribing without disputes. Similarly, some medications may require a different method of prescription. Such a situation may lead to demand of education on the same (Australia, 2010).
To do away with the problem of delays, a patient may call the prescriber on phone to obtain the required number. This is the easiest way of getting the number. However, it is risky since lack of one’s presence may result into fear of entrusted information. The second action that one may use to solve the matter is by visiting the visiting the nearest hospital to obtain the number from a chief health officer. Another alternative is to seek for help from any prescriber who may sign a declaration form for a period of less than two months (Leonhart, et al., 2010).
Conclusion
Medical prescription is an important aspect in the field of health care. It forms part of the treatment process. However, some prescribers have not at time adhered to the rules and regulations according to guidelines from ACT. This paper provides solutions to the problem and strategies of avoiding such mistakes in the future. It is evident that in order to prevent such future incidences, prescriber education, public sensitization and pharmacists’ initiatives to do what is best are some of the measures of curbing the situation. In addition, most of the prescribers ought to be retrained on some important areas of their job. For example, quick reaction towards the needs of the patients is one of the issues to be handled to avoid delays in the future. Besides, there is the need to educate the prescribers on the essence of complying with the code of conduct in ACT dimensions (Health, 2003).
Bibliography
Australia, P. G. o., 2010. Quality care pharmacy standards:quality management system for pharmacies in Australia. Sidney: SAL Global Ltd.
Bessell, T. & Silagy, C., 2002. Quality of glo...