Professional Guidances 1 Flashcards
GPHC Guidances
- patient confidentiality
- maintaining clear sexual boundaries
- consent
- raising concerns
- provision of pharmacy services affected by reglious and moral beliefs
- owners and superintendent pharmacists employ responsible pharmacists
- responsible pharmacists
- responding to complaints and concerns
- registered pharmacies preparing unlicensed meds
- registered pharmacies providing pharmacy services at a distance, including internet
raising concerns
- must take action to protect well being of patients and public
- be ready to challenge judgement of colleagues and other professionals if you have reason to believe that their decisions could affect safety or care of others
- make relevant authority aware of any policies, systems, working conditions, actions, affect patient care and safety. if something goes wrong and they report it to you, make sure you deal with it appropriately
What to remember when raising concerns
- professional duties are more important than loyalties
- failing to raise concerns could result in harm to patients
- if you do not report any concerns it would breach the standards for pharmacy professionals
Laws relating to raising concerns
- Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998- protects employees who rise genuine concerns about malpractice in workplace from unfair treatment or victimisation from employer
- doesnt include self-employed
- allows victims to seek compensation
- step by step to raising concerns
Whistleblowing disclosure
-all prescribed bodies legally must publish annual report on whistleblowing disclosures made by them
How to raise a genuine concern
depends on nature of concern, who or what is concerning and whether it is causing direct or immediate patient harm
- advice is available from several organisations
- usually must raise concern with employer first, before taking it to regulator
Freedom to speak up guardian
guidance to primary care providers on supporting whistleblowing in NHS
- freedom to speak up in primary care means:
- NHS staff encourage raising concern at earlier opportunity
- NHS primary care providers proactive in preventing inappropriate behaviour, bullying harassment towards staff
- NHS primary care provider should name an individual who is independent of management chain as freedom to speak up guardian who can ensure polices are in place and staff know who to contact if they have a concern
How to report
- find organisation policy
- report without delay
- report to immediate supervisor
- report to a suitable person in authority or outside body
- if can’t with supervisor, chief pharmacist
- keep a record
- maintain confidentiality and do not disclose info without consent where possible
Do’s
- Understand that it is all right to speak up, even if you might be mistaken
- Read the whistleblowing policy at your organisation, which should name the person that you can go to with your concerns
- Stick to the facts and report only what you have witnessed
Don’ts
- Try to gather evidence yourself
- Make allegations
- Confuse a genuine concern with a personal grievance
Dealing with complaint
- have an effective complaints procedure in place
- record the complaint
- record the action being taken
- review your record regularly
- audit
Minimising risk of dispensing errors:
dispensary lay out
- organised
- good atmosphere
- stock alerts
- segregated dispensing checking areas
- effective segregation of prescriptions
Minimising Errors: Dispensing process
- label before selecting product from shelf
- refer to rx when selecting stock
- dispense from rx not label
- check boxes to identify involvement
- mental breaks
- all checks against rx
In the Event of An Error
Root cause analysis
Consider:
Has patient taken incorrect medicine(s)? If they have establish degree of harm and contact GP or refer to hospital
Ask to inspect the incorrect medicine. Make it clear you don’t want to keep it but just inspect it. If they say no, ask them to keep hold of it until they can hand it over to a representative of GPhC or local PCO
Apologise
Do not minimise seriousness of error
Supply correct medicine, if appropriate
Establish expectations. What would they like you to do about their complaint?
Provide details of ‘official bodies’ if requested
Establish what went wrong
Report complaints as per SOPs
Record, review, learn and take action
Notify the pharmacist on duty at time of err
Reviewing Errors
Conditions in pharmacy at the time (breaks? how busy was the pharmacy? layout?)
Health of the pharmacist/team
Assistance (was pharmacist working alone? competence of the assistant?)
Prescription recovered (legibility, check endorsements)
Systems used for dispensing/checking reviewed
