There is so much going on in the pharmacy sector at the moment, it’s difficult to keep up with it. You may have read this post about the Pharmacy Action Plan 2016-2020, and you will most certainly have heard about the PACT project. The implementation of the PACT will bring about fundamental changes in our practice. It will help make use of the pharmacists most valuable skills by enabling the delegation of the demanding and time-consuming task of accuracy checking. But, of course, many of you are worried about the idea of allowing technicians to do the final checking of a prescription.
The Question of Responsibility
What isn’t the pharmacist’s responsibility in the pharmacy?
One of the most intriguing questions about the idea is this: Who is responsible if the checking technician makes a mistake and the wrong medicine is given to the patient? The pharmacist or the technician? I’m sure this question occurred to other pharmacists as well. Perhaps the reason for many pharmacist not buying into the idea of implementing the PACT in New Zealand is that they answered the question with the pessimistic, albeit rational, “Of course, the pharmacist will be responsible, duh!” True enough, because what isn’t the pharmacist’s responsibility in the pharmacy? Well, let’s find out!