A chara, – David Loughlin suggests (Letters, July 17th) that all pharmaceutical packaging be standardised to 30-day packs as a “monthly supply”. As a community pharmacist, might I respectfully point out that it is not as simple as this.
Many patients are on weekly medication, and the rationale for the current preponderance of 28-day packs is so that supplies can be standardised to four weeks. This way, for example, 28 once-daily tablets can be supplied with 56 twice-daily tablets and four-once weekly tablets, and everything stays in sync and will require refill on the same day every four weeks.
Government drug schemes take account of this, and the 13th four-week supply in every year is free of charge.
When pharmacists “oblige” patients by chopping off two or three tablets to make up a 30-day or 31-day supply, they are supplying partial tablet strips that almost certainly will not include a batch number or an expiry date and so are untraceable in case of any post-dispensing incident.
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Moreover, doing so is in breach of the principle of the recent falsified medicines directive of a sealed medicine package from manufacturer to pharmacist to patient.
Finally, it should be noted that 30 days is not a month on eight out of the 12 months of the year!
Original-pack dispensing of sealed 28-day packs is overwhelmingly in the best interests of both patient safety and efficient dispensing, while the extra 13th visit to the pharmacy each year is a wonderful opportunity to avail of some of the best free healthcare advice available in Ireland. – Is mise,
DAVID CARROLL, MPSI
Dublin 2.
