We highlighted to Sainsbury’s that as they had now taken a decision to issue a written warning to a pharmacist because of a single dispensing error, this was an important precedent which would now have to inform the company’s future approach; a consistent approach to employment disciplinary procedures is an expectation placed upon an employer by employment legislation and test case precedent. Consequently, it was going to be important that all Sainsbury’s employed pharmacists should be notified that a single error is a disciplinary offence (but probably only if the customer complains). It is possible that Sainsbury’s may not yet have told their employed pharmacists, so we are providing advance notification by issuing this email.
The PDA has a number of concerns about this unusual approach to single dispensing errors. Firstly Sainsbury’s approach mitigates against encouraging an open reporting culture, as pharmacists will be discouraged from investigating and reporting errors, if they know that one error that caused no harm will lead to them being disciplined. Secondly our fear is that now there is an imminent obligation for the Responsible Pharmacist to ensure the safe and effective running of the entire pharmacy, then this greater legal burden may be used as further grounds for pharmacists to be disciplined for errors or breaches of regulations by them or even by other staff in the future.