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Private RXs

ledleyking123 said:

"I have few further questions.

What is the need for a prescription to be private, why can't they all be NHS as you are less likely to pay for NHS prescription. Also what are dispensing doctors and this case they won last week."

Not all drugs are available on the NHS yet some people still want them. They therefore have to pay for them using their own money and this warrants a private Rx (prescription). Also, private healthcare is provided by Bupa and the like. As far as i am aware, they don't always get NHS scripts.

Dispensing Drs are like a GP, but they give you your medicines, not a pharmacy. Their victory was against restrictions being in place to stop a lot of dispensing doctors from... dispensing.

Reply 1

ledleyking123

but didn't our bodies protest agaisnt them dispensing because in theory our main role is dispensing!

Reply 2

TigerSwift

ledleyking123

but didn't our bodies protest agaisnt them dispensing because in theory our main role is dispensing!

Our main role isn't dispensing.

I believe Drs should not dispense because they have not had the training to do so like dispensary technicians and checking technicians. Therefore you lose a safety step already.

Secondly, pharmacists know more about medicines and that is why they perform the clinical checks to make sure the prescription is appropriate and will not harm the patient. With dispensing doctors this would not occur in the same way, and in effect another safety precaution is lost.

Yes, various bodies protested yet the Drs got their own way... again.

Reply 3

RetiredAccount89

Dispensing doctors are not 'like a GP' they invariable ARE a GP. They exist because some areas are uneconomical for pharmicists to have a decent service, ergo certain sections of the public lose out - princiaplly the vulnerable ones.

And whilst I'm sure pharmicists perform a valuable role asking you incessantly why you are prescribing drug x, y and z and then stammering when you describe the big worded medical condition it is somewhat OTT in many cases.

The key question one should ask is 'is there evidence that the number of clinical incidents is higher with dispensing doctors than with pharmacies'..?

Reply 4

TigerSwift

I haven't looked for evidence, but common sense dictates that the less number of checks there are in a system the more prone it is to error.

I am aware that dispensing doctors are needed where there is no easy access to a pharmacy, but as far as i am aware there are no restrictions on GPs dispensing when there is a pharmacy across the road.

I think the problem with many community pharmacists asking questions all the time is that they probably have little experience and may not have great clinical knowledge. I found hospital pharmacists to be able to apply clinical knowledge better and very rarely asked a Dr to change something - simply because it wasn't necessary, even though an interaction was present.

Reply 5

Danielle89

Never heard of dispensing GPs. I should imagine doctors would be less competent at dispensing, because pharmacy students are taught from 2nd year (here at RGU anyway) to check and recheck prescriptions, whereas doctors wont have had the hours of coursework sessions sitting practicing the skill and being tested on it.

Also, the public opinion on doctors is that they are harder to talk to than pharmacists. People see pharmacists as more approachable, therefore if the pharmacist was cut out of the process, the patient might not understand part of their treatment but go along with it anyway, guessing the bits they dont "get" and not mentioning other health problems they have that their GP might not have noticed from their file. So poor use of the drug could end up causing the patient harm, all because they were too frightened by their GP to ask a question.

Someone above said something about pharmacists being angered because dispensing is their main job - I dont think this is relevant, not after the new pharmacy contract comes in and allows pharmacists to do PGDs and gain the skills to write prescriptions for patients in the pharmacy. Same with urgent supplies and emergency supplies and so forth - pharmacists have a lot of responsibilities these days so I dont think that point is valid