| Medication Orders from Abroad: To Obey or Not to Obey? |
| PharmaNews By Dorraine Williams |
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Medications are undoubtedly the most easily forgotten items when travelling, the toothbrush coming in at a close second. It is therefore a regular habit for foreigners to visit pharmacies within the federation, armed with empty pill bottles, prescriptions from their doctors back home or simply a vague description of their medications which are usually urgently needed in small quantities. They seek only to ‘make do’ until they return home. There is another group of foreigners however who seek to buy local medications in larger quantities. Where it is deemed that the price of their medication is cheaper and more accessible locally than in their own country, they habitually seek to purchase large quantities out of convenience and in an effort to save money. At the pharmacy, the lawful practice is to honour prescriptions written only by local doctors. Therefore foreigners seeking to buy prescription medications are often instructed to obtain a prescription from a local doctor. Understandably, there is much protest owing to the reality that the original medication was purchased having visited a doctor is their own country only to again be asked to visit another locally, tapping into funds no doubt reserved for entertainment, in order to obtain a few days worth of medications they accidentally left behind. Foreigners who seek to shop in bulk are also referred to local doctors to legitimize the need for such medications in the quantities desired. These foreigners are wholly subjected to the discretion of the pharmacist who makes the decision to refer them to a doctor or to facilitate their medication needs based on the nature and quantity of the medications requested and the validity of their claims.
Pharmacists are unable to validate prescriptions written by doctors overseas and with the advent of new technology the profession is exposed to the use fraudulent documents including prescriptions and labels to procure regulated pharmaceuticals. The request for a local prescription therefore seeks to legitimize the need for the medications requested with an interest to satisfy the lawful requirements of purchase as well as to protect the public against medication abuse and misuse.
This practice is not unique to the federation of St. Kitts and Nevis as the issue of legitimizing valid overseas prescriptions is a problem faced by many nations. Locally practicing professionals including doctors are licensed my local governing bodies and so belong to a database from which references can be made when necessary. Also in smaller countries there is a natural familiarity with the locally practicing doctors. On the other hand, the ability to authenticate those written by foreign doctors is challenging due to limited access to licensing information and a definite lack of familiarity making it next to impossible to distinguish between legitimate overseas prescriptions and fraudulent ones.
In order to prevent the inconvenience of having to spend valuable vacation time and resources at the doctor’s office or at the pharmacy, persons are encouraged to make every effort to travel with the correct amount of medications needed for the duration of travel. All things considered it is far more convenient to forget the toothbrush.
For more information or queries send an email to pharmanewsskn@gmail.com. |
