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SHOULD VETS BE ALLOWED
TO CONTINUE TO DISPENSE DRUGS ? First broadcast on www.provet.co.uk
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This information is provided by
Provet for educational purposes only.
You should seek the advice of your
veterinarian if your pet is ill as only he or she can correctly advise on the
diagnosis and recommend the treatment that is most appropriate for your pet.
Periodically the UK Government
announces that
it is going to review the dispensing of drugs by the veterinary profession. In
some countries within the EC veterinarians are allowed to carry drugs for
immediate use, but they are not allowed to dispense drugs to their clients. In
these countries eg Denmark, the veterinarian has to issue a prescription which
their client takes to a pharmacist (or other outlet) to get the drugs. At the
moment, in the UK, so-called prescription only medicines (POM's) can only be
obtained from a veterinary practice, or from a Pharmacist if a veterinarian
writes a prescription out. Depending on the outcome of the Government's
forthcoming review these drugs may have their legal category changed and so be
allowed to be sold direct to the public by Pharmacies, or other outlets, and
veterinarians may or may not be allowed to continue to sell them.
There are several motives behind the proposal to remove veterinary
dispensing rights, including :
- To reduce the costs of drugs for farmers - the perception being that
veterinarians may add a higher profit margin to prescription only drugs
than other outlets would
- To reduce "over-prescribing" of drugs - in particular
antibiotics which everyone wants to reduce because of the emergence of
resistant infections - if indeed "over-prescribing" by the
profession is taking place
- To remove the suspicion that a profession that benefits financially from
"selling" drugs might over-prescribe in order to increase
revenue.
- To remove the suspicion that a profession with a monopoly to sell a
category of drug might profiteer by adding unacceptably high profit
margins to those drugs.
If the veterinary profession did lose it's right to dispense drugs, there
would be some consequences for the animal owning public and farmers :
- If a large proportion of a veterinary practice's income is to be removed
it will inevitably have to be replaced by an increase in the cost of
professional fees.
- The option to reduce costs by reducing the standard of service offered
by a practice is of course not possible ...although some practices might
decide to drop the farm animal aside of their business altogether if they
cannot cover their running costs out of professional fees alone.
- Inconvenience - because clients may not be able to leave the
veterinary premises with a full quota of drugs for their animal following
a consultation.
- Having made a diagnosis on a farm or stable premises the
veterinarian may not be able to leave the required drugs, in which
case staff would have to find time to visit their nearest drug
outlet....which in isolated rural communities could be a considerable
distance away.
Feedback Request
Provet would like to hear your views on this topic.
Please send your comments (with a brief explanation of who you are) to feedback@provet.co.uk
Thank You
Updated October 2013
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