VPA highlights privacy

THE simple act of giving patients their prescription medicines in open baskets visible to other patients in the pharmacy constitutes a breach of privacy for that patient, the Victorian Pharmacy Authority (VPA) has said.

Citing the case of a licensee cautioned on the matter, the VPA referenced the Pharmacy Regulation Act 2010 which states, “Adequate arrangements are in place to ensure that the identity of a medicine being supplied or dispensed to a client of the pharmacy or pharmacy department cannot be known by another person present in the pharmacy or pharmacy department who is not a person carrying on the pharmacy business or pharmacy department or a member of the staff of the business or department”.

The VPA also referred to the recent case of a man who was held at knife-point by a robber who followed him to his vehicle and asked specifically for his alprazolam medicines he had just picked up from his pharmacy in Western Australia.

Further, the VPA said, “when informing staff and consumers about the legislative requirement to maintain the privacy of dispensed medicines in the pharmacy, licensees are also encouraged to highlight the potential public safety risks that could result from consumers’ medicines being identifiable after dispensing”.

Other cases reported by the Authority involved failure to maintain true and accurate balances of Schedule 8 poisons in their possession, failing to store them in an appropriate drug safe, or failing to ensure security of the storage space.

In addition issues around storage temperature monitoring, the maintenance of the dispensing area as a private dedicated area and compounding of hazardous materials in a non-dedicated area without suitable protective clothing.

The VPA also submitted its Quarterly Performance Report for the period 01 Apr 2019 to 30 Jun 2019.

The report can be sourced at pharmacy.vic.gov.au.