Decriminalising dispensing errors

The workplace pressures campaign highlighted that some of the cause of stress amongst the profession came from a fear of prosecution for making a mistake. Although many pharmacists believed the law was unlikely to be used against them a case last year changed this view.

Working with our members to deliver change

The Society knew that to change the current legislation we would need to persuade members of Parliament about the importance of changing the Medicines Act. All three political parties were lobbied on the issue and an Early Day Motion (EDM) was written calling for an amendment to the legislation. An EDM is a sort of parliamentary petition. MPs are asked to sign it if they support it. The more support that it gets, the more effective it is going to be.

The EDM said:

• That this House recognises that community pharmacists are on the front line in providing vital services to NHS patients in a high-pressure environment
• Notes that under the 1968 Medicines Act pharmacists who make an error while dispensing medicines are regularly tried for a criminal offence
• Is concerned that this discourages healthcare professionals who fear being criminalized from reporting dispensing errors
• Is further concerned that this limits opportunities to record mistakes and to learn from these errors
• Notes that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is currently undertaking a project to review medicines legislation
• Calls upon the Government to work with the RPSGB to ensure that amended legislation offers a more proportionate response with the flexibility to recognise a genuine single dispensing error

The success of the EDM was due, in a large part, to the efforts of our members. We produced a template which they could use to write to their MPs asking them to sign the EDM. Many members responded to this request and wrote to their MPs, highlighting the strength of feeling amongst the profession. The result was one of the most successful EDM’s of the year – with well over 100 MPs supporting it.

The campaign reached a high point in November when the Crown Prosecution Service announced they were ending the automatic criminalisation of single dispensing errors. They will be producing new guidelines in 2010 to reflect the change in the current regulations. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency have agreed to include the issue in the work that it is undertaking to consolidate and review the Medicines Act and we will continue working to ensure that this happens.