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The Irish Pharmaceutical Union (IPU) is introducing new regulations to change the way drugs are prescribed for psychiatric patients in the Dublin area.
Under the new system, medical card patients attending outpatient clinics in the old eastern health board region will need to go to their GP for prescriptions.
Previously they could be prescribed treatments at the clinics, but after a series of errors they will now get an outline of their treatments there before heading to their GP for a full prescription written on a special General Medical Services form.
Pharmacist Bernard Duggan, vice-chairman of the community pharmacy committee of the IPU, said that the new regulations were necessary to ensure people get the right treatments.
“Errors in transcribing prescriptions between the clinic and the GP are a concern for patient safety,” he said.
A HSE spokesperson said: “All discretionary arrangements for how some regions have operated in the past have to be looked at.”
Copyright Press Association 2010
