Pharmacy Council of New South Wales

Message from the President Welcome, introductions and important updates Welcome to the Council’s first newsletter in our new newsletter format and my first as President of the Pharmacy Council. I was honoured to take over the reins as President in April of this year,...

We receive over 300 complaints against pharmacists every year. Each complaint is assessed by us and the Health Care Complaints Commission. Responses are usually sought from the responsible pharmacist/s and then we consult with the HCCC to determine what, if any,...

Authority requirements for certain prescriptions has emerged as a knowledge gap for many pharmacists. Do you know what type of authorities are required for different prescriptions? Prescribing and dispensing: Recently, the Medical Council of NSW undertook interim...

I recently attended a conference for regulators of Health Professionals. One of the keynote presentations really made me stop and think about what I do day to day. The presenter spoke about competence and performance. Competence being what we CAN do and performance...

Last year we saw a large increase in the number of reported complaints relating to the compounding of medicines in pharmacies in NSW. In 2017/2018 there were 42 complaints, which was up from 20 reports in 2016/2017. This also represents a total of 13.5% of the total...

When entering a prescription into the dispense system, it has been found that many pharmacists are not entering all the correct and required information. Two important pieces of information not recorded correctly which have repeatedly come to our attention are: The...

To all you pharmacists out there in the wide world of pharmacy, please be advised that routine inspections of Council registered pharmacies carried out by the inspectors of the Pharmacy Council of New South Wales, now include, Checking of appropriate storage of...

This article is the first in a series where we get to know our Council members. This month, we feature an interview with Adrian Lee, elected local pharmacist member and Deputy President, who was appointed to the Council in 2010. How did you first get involved with the...

As highlighted in the President’s message, the past few months have seen a concerning upward trend in the number of complaints coming to Council’s attention which are serious enough to warrant immediate action by way of a Section 150 hearing. Possible outcomes of...

Council inspectors have advised that, although it was released in February 2018, about 50% of routine pharmacy inspections have shown the pharmacy to be non-compliant in so far as the Australian Pharmaceutical Formulary and Handbook 24 th Edition is concerned. Other...