HDC

A pharmacist has been reprimanded by the Health and Disability Commissioner for a dispensing error, this time for mistakenly giving a patient the anticholesterol medication ezetimibe instead of the cancer medication exemestane.

Máté Hegedus-Gaspar takes a close look at an HDC case, where a baby was incorrectly dispensed methadone, to extract lessons for pharmacists and technicians

If a doctor makes a script medication error, it is a breach of the patient’s rights if the pharmacist fails to rectify it, writes non-practising legal expert and pharmacist Máté Hegedus-Gaspar in the first of two articles on this topic

The importance of aged residential care facilities having appropriate systems in place to ensure nursing staff administer critically important medications correctly, and for medication errors to be identified and followed up in a timely manner, was highlighted in a decision published by Deputy Commissioner, Rose Wall

Pharmacist and non-practising legal expert Máté Hegedus-Gaspar looks at how to handle dispensing errors to limit damage and hopefully forestall disciplinary action

Jonathan Chilton-Towle reports on an HDC case where a woman prescribed sodium valproate later became pregnant

Pharmacist and non-practising legal expert Máté Hegedus-Gaspar looks at how to handle dispensing errors to limit damage and hopefully forestall disciplinary action

Deputy health and disability commissioner Rose Wall has made recommendations to improve accessibility of information about the anti-seizure medicine sodium valproate and the risk it poses to unborn children

The Health and Disability Commissioner is deeply concerned about the findings of a study of medical students’ experiences of informed consent in patients’ treatment

Since the traffic light COVID-19 management system was intro­duced late last year, masks have been required in retail stores such as pharmacies during the orange and red settings