Providing ordered drugs or appliances
8.—(1) Where a pharmacist is presented with, or receives from the ETP service, a prescription form or a repeatable prescription, the pharmacist shall only provide the drugs or appliances so ordered—
(a)if the prescription form or repeatable prescription is duly signed and completed as described in paragraph 5(2) or (3); and
(b)in accordance with the order on the prescription form or repeatable prescription,
subject to any regulations in force under the Weights and Measures Act 1985(1) and the following provisions of this Part.
(2) Drugs or appliances so ordered shall be provided either by or under the direct supervision of a pharmacist.
(3) Where the pharmacist referred to in sub-paragraph (2) is employed by a pharmacist, the pharmacist must not be someone—
(a)who—
(i)has been disqualified under section 46(2)(b) of the Act (or under any corresponding provision in force in Scotland or Northern Ireland) from inclusion in the pharmaceutical list of a Primary Care Trust (or, in Scotland, of a Health Board or, in Northern Ireland, of a Health and Social Services Board), and
(ii)is the subject of a declaration under section 46(2)(c) of the Act (or any corresponding provision in force in Scotland or Northern Ireland) that he is not fit to be engaged in any capacity in the provision of pharmaceutical services; or
(b)who is suspended.
(4) If the order is for an appliance of a type requiring measuring and fitting by the pharmacist (for example a truss), the pharmacist shall make all necessary arrangements for—
(a)measuring the person named on the prescription form or repeatable prescription for the appliance; and
(b)fitting the appliance.
(5) If the order is for a drug or appliance included in the Drug Tariff, the British National Formulary (including any Appendix published as part of that Formulary), the Dental Practitioner’s Formulary, the European Pharmacopoeia or the British Pharmaceutical Codex, the drug or appliance provided shall comply with the standard or formula specified therein.
(6) If the order—
(a)is an order for a drug; but
(b)is not an order for a controlled drug within the meaning of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, other than a drug which is for the time being specified in Schedule 4 or 5 to the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001,
and does not prescribe its quantity, strength or dosage, a pharmacist may provide the drug in such strength and dosage as in the exercise of his professional skill, knowledge and care he considers to be appropriate and, subject to sub-paragraph (7), in such quantity as he considers to be appropriate for a course of treatment for a period not exceeding five days.
(7) Where an order to which sub-paragraph (6) applies is for—
(a)an oral contraceptive substance;
(b)a drug, which is available for supply as part of pharmaceutical services only together with one or more other drugs; or
(c)an antibiotic in a liquid form for oral administration in respect of which pharmaceutical considerations require its provision in an unopened package,
which is not available for provision as part of pharmaceutical services except in such packages that the minimum size available contains a quantity appropriate to a course of treatment for a period of more than 5 days, the pharmacist may provide the minimum size available package.
(8) Where any drug to which this paragraph applies (that is, a drug that is not one to which the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 applies, unless it is a drug for the time being specified in Schedule 5 to the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001), ordered by a prescriber on a prescription form or repeatable prescription, is available for provision by a pharmacist in a pack in a quantity which is different to the quantity which has been so ordered, and that drug is—
(a)sterile;
(b)effervescent or hygroscopic;
(c)a liquid preparation for addition to bath water;
(d)a coal tar preparation;
(e)a viscous preparation; or
(f)packed at the time of its manufacture in a calendar pack or special container,
the pharmacist shall, subject to sub-paragraph (9), provide the drug in the pack whose quantity is nearest to the quantity which has been so ordered.
(9) A pharmacist shall not provide, pursuant to sub-paragraph (8), a drug in a calendar pack where, in his opinion, it was the intention of the prescriber who ordered the drug that it should be provided only in the exact quantity ordered.
(10) In this paragraph—
(a)“calendar pack” means a blister or strip pack showing the days of the week or month against each of the several units in the pack; and
(b)“special container” means any container with an integral means of application or from which it is not practicable to dispense an exact quantity.
(11) Except as provided in sub-paragraph (12), a pharmacist shall not provide a Scheduled drug in response to an order by name, formula or other description on a prescription form or repeatable prescription.
(12) Where a drug has an appropriate non-proprietary name and it is ordered on a prescription form or repeatable prescription either by that name or by its formula, a pharmacist may provide a drug which has the same specification notwithstanding that it is a Scheduled drug, provided that where a Scheduled drug is in a pack which consists of a drug in more than one strength, such provision does not involve the supply of part only of the pack.
(13) Where a drug which is ordered as specified in sub-paragraph (12) combines more than one drug, that sub-paragraph shall apply only if the combination has an appropriate non-proprietary name, whether the individual drugs which it combines do so or not.
(14) A pharmacist shall provide any drug which he is required to provide under paragraph 5 in a suitable container.