Guild wants involvement in ministerial review

Guild wants community pharmacist involved in Ministerial review of medicine recalls

The Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand (the Guild) congratulates Health Minister Tony Ryall on his urgent review of medicine recalls which will begin on Tuesday 8 June.

The Minister will undertake the review which will include looking for input from appropriate people within the sector. “The Minister has indicated that they will be using an external advisor to assist with the review,” says Annabel Young, Guild CE. “The Guild is hoping that this advisor will be an experienced community pharmacist.”

The Guild is pleased that the Minister has recognised the seriousness of the issue, both in terms of patient safety and the impact on the wider health sector. It understands that the Terms of Reference for the Review are quite limited but is hopeful that it will answer the important questions, including:
• What is the process used to establish the risk to patient safety?
• At what point in the process is a recall triggered?
• Who decides how patients are contacted and how the recall is managed?
• How should pharmacists or other health professionals be compensated for their time when a medicine is recalled?
• Who is responsible for ensuring the recall is successful?
• What are the repercussions for a supplier if the recall is not performed effectively?
• How do we preserve the credibility of recalls?

The Guild welcomes any move by the Minister of Health to establish clear procedures for managing recalls. “Sector agreement is crucial for patient safety, the credibility of recalls and for how pharmacy is to be compensated for the time involved in managing recalls,” says Annabel.

Medicine recalls are at present the subject of litigation involving community pharmacist Ian Johnson. Ian is the owner of Johnson’s Pharmacy in Otara and has served a notice of claim on GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in response to GSK’s Consumer Level medicine recall of Marevan (warfarin) 3mg tablets on 28 January 2010. Ian, who is President of the Guild, is filing this notice as a test case as GSK has refused to pay his invoice of $395.10 (including GST) for time spent managing the recall.

“We have tried to sit around the table with GSK to work this out, but have had no luck meeting with them,” says Annabel.

This year alone community pharmacists have been involved in four medicine recalls, including 27 May’s patient level recall by Mylan NZ of all strengths of Pacific Atenolol tablets.

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