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  • 10 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: August 3rd, 2023
  • kungen@feddit.nutoMildly Infuriating@lemmy.world•The way my fuck-ass pharmacist makes up the remaining pills in my bastarding prescriptionEnglish
    3·
    6 days ago

    There are bottles as well, but it’s not as common. And they’re factory-produced bottles that are tamper resistant – not like those orange ones in the US. So it’s basically the same safety as blisters, other than its easier for the patient to spill.

    I’m not 100% sure, but I think most of the groundwork for this situation is from EU Directive 2001/83/EC. Medical products need to have a lot of information provided, and it just gets simpler to have boxes with blisters to meet all the requirements, and gives safety at the same time.

    I can’t imagine how hectic it must be for pharmacy techs in the US. Despite requiring 5 years of school to be a pharmacist here, the job is basically being a glorified cashier… Unless the person has any questions, you simply check their ID, check in the national registry that enough time has passed since their last collection (particularly if it’s a controlled substance), collect a package from the shelf, print out a label to put on the box (containing their name, doctor, dosage, instructions), scan the label and package, collect payment, and that’s it.

  • kungen@feddit.nutoMildly Infuriating@lemmy.world•The way my fuck-ass pharmacist makes up the remaining pills in my bastarding prescriptionEnglish
    476·
    6 days ago

    Tbh, a pharmacist shouldn’t really do anything with the actual medication other than dispensing it correctly. In Sweden, every package is individual; the pharmacist should never be opening them nor touching the blisters in normal cases. It significantly reduces risks for the patient and ensures traceability.

    It is a bit less efficient though, as pharmacies need to stock up different qualities of the same dosages: Stilnoct(zolpidem) 10mg for example has two different packages: 14 tablets, or 28 tablets. If you have a prescription for 28 tablets, you can’t buy two 14-tablet packages. And if you were to have a 14 prescription, you can’t buy the 28 and ask the pharmacist to throw away the other blister. But I think it’s a worthy tradeoff to eliminate the majority of human mistakes.