Allegations dog pharmacist in Summerland
A former Kelowna pharmacist who’s now working in Summerland vehemently denies he improperly dispensed opioids and other drugs without prescriptions, as alleged by the profession’s regulatory body.
Dayton Sobool is scheduled to appear May 27 in front of a disciplinary panel of The College of Pharmacists of B.C. to set dates for a hearing into his alleged conduct.
“Certainly it’s a lot of allegations,” Sobool said in a brief telephone interview Friday from his current workplace at Summerland Guardian Pharmacy.
“A lot of it’s very similar dispensing to what we’re doing right now with COVID-19,” he said, referring to the practice of prescriptions being delivered digitally from doctors’ offices instead of in person.
“There were procedural errors, no diversion…. That’s why I’m confident the hearing will go the right way,” said Sobool.
According to the college’s citation against him, Sobool worked as a locum at Prescription Health Studio in Kelowna from August 2016 to March 2017.
Two weeks after he left, the pharmacy’s owner called the college and alleged Sobool had diverted medication and didn’t provide required documentation for 11 different prescriptions.
The college investigated and allegedly found Sobool dispensed opioids like morphine and generic Oxycodone on seven occasions “without first obtaining a valid written prescription.”
It says the investigation also found Sobool on three occasions allegedly improperly dispensed Ativan and diazepam, which are benzodiazepine sedatives.
Sobool’s conduct is alleged to have violated multiple provincial and college regulations.
And it’s not the first time Sobool has been in trouble with the regulator on similar allegations.
Between July 2007 and November 2010, he was employed at Paragon Pharmacy in Kelowna. Two months after Sobool left there, the pharmacy owner contacted the college to raise concerns about “narcotic inventory management, prescription documentation and dispensing,” according to the current citation.
The matter was resolved in July 2011 by Sobool singing an undertaking that committed him to following proper policies, taking additional training and submitting to random inspections of his work for a period of one year.