This post is a sharp, but hopefully short glimpse in to the pedantry of prescription writing.
I was recently contacted by a representative of an electronic patient management system. They had a request from doctor saying he didn’t want to put the form of drug on the script (e.g. he didn’t care if ramipril tabs or capsules were used).
In this case the script wasn’t one used only at a remote health service but a prescription that a pharmacy would use to claim remuneration under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).
Firstly I would have thought a brief discussion of the form with the patient would be beneficial; i.e. the patient might take a capsule but not a tablet. My understanding was that the form of drug had to be placed on all PBS scripts for a pharmacist to claim remuneration.
I was wrong. Well sort of wrong. An email to a Medicare Pharmaceutical Advisor sorted it out:
Dear Andrew
As discussed, quoting the National Health (Pharmaceutical Benefits) Regulations, Regulation 19.1.e. that governs prescription writing in Australia states that doctors must write a prescription in a manner that
“identifies (in the prescription) the pharmaceutical benefit by such particulars as are necessary to identify the pharmaceutical benefit”
For example, writing “diazepam 5mg” alone does not provide sufficient particulars to identify it the item required is a tablet or an injection
So in the Ramipril example initially given the doctor does have to specify whether he wants tablets or capsules.
This is but one of the myriad rules pharmacists have to ensure the script complies with before we can even check to make sure it is the right drug, right dose, no interactions with your other medications etc before you receive it in your hands
Photograph taken by Psyberartist and used under Creative Commons licence
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