The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, which regulates professional pharmacy practice, advises that the optimal and safest way for dispensed medicines to be supplied is through direct supply to the patient or carer, following a face-to-face interaction between a pharmacist and the patient or carer in the pharmacy. This direct communication with patients or their carers allows the pharmacist to evaluate a patient’s overall health and health needs, perform a therapeutic review of the prescription, and for the required patient counselling to take place. It also allows the pharmacist to verify the authenticity of a prescription and to evaluate the safety and appropriateness of supplying the medicine in the particular circumstances presented.
In general, monthly prescriptions are dispensed by pharmacies on a single occasion, depending on the type of medicine and the form in which it is packaged by the manufacturer. A prescriber may, on occasion, request that a patient is only supplied with one week's supply of medicine at a time, because of the nature of the medicines involved or where there may be safety concerns in relation to the patient. In such circumstances, the pharmacy would be required to dispense the prescription on a weekly basis. This is known as phased dispensing.
The current phased dispensing system was established in 1996. I have been informed by the HSE that its Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) issued a letter to all pharmacies in May this year, to reconfirm the rules applying to phased dispensing.
