Anyone a pharmacist in Canada?

[trailmix 77]

Ok, I don't know if there are any pharmacy savvy people or pharmacists here (not meant to be mutually exclusive there haha).

Anyway, here is what I am wondering.

A person I know takes morphine, gets a prescription for 100 tablets each time. So this person goes to their regular pharmacy, at Co-op, last Thursday. When they get home they open up the bag open up the old and new pill bottles to combine them and notice they were only given 30 of the 100 tablets.

So she calls the pharmacy and is told "Our count was correct for that day". Anyway on Monday she goes to the actual place and speaks with the Manager. They tell her the count was correct and ask her stupid questions like "do you live alone? Is it possible you dropped some on the floor?" OMG how would you not notice dropping 70 tablets on the floor - but anyway.

This all seems very strange to me - oh and yesterday they did give her the additional 70 - after calling her Dr for a '2nd opinion' (I can only assume they wanted to make sure she isn't a raging drug addict - which she isn't).

So basically - this is my question: I don't know anything about controlled narcotics, but I assume that they have to count them every day and keep records of the prescriptions vs pills used?

Edited December 5, 2007 by trailmix

[Flames9_RN 358]

There should be a strict count on them. i know in the hospital the drugs get counted at the beginning and end of each shift. To be missing 70 is really odd. No clue what the protocol is at the pharmacy!

[Mephys 2]

Any controlled drugs goes through some serious counting and recording, even in a Vet hospital. We even substract ml when it comes to a liquid drug to make sure there isn't any missing in the end.

So yeah its really weird to be missing 70 missing pills. I would personnaly always check if it was a regular prescription, because its easier to point it out that someone is a drug addict in those cases than when its a one time prescription.

[SpiritAlight 1]

This smells fishy...hmmm...

[Krikit 1,164]

Sounds like there's going to be some internal investigating going on at that pharmacy soon. I would definitely be insulted if they had intimated that it was my "error". Ontario has a good governing body at the Ontario College of Pharmacists. This is a good link for their complaints process. They can do a search for other provinces. If your friend is in the US then I'm sure there must be an equivalent governing body here also. Scary stuff.

*Edited for idiocy.*

Edited December 5, 2007 by Krikit

[Flames9_RN 358]

Not saying anything about your friend, but morphine is a schedule II drug, which means it has a high potential for abuse or physical or psychological dependency. So the pharmacist should be proactive in finding what went wrong. Maybe a staff member is stealing it, etc etc. I know at the hospital if the count is wrong, no one leaves!!

[Mephys 2]

Not saying anything about your friend, but morphine is a schedule II drug, which means it has a high potential for abuse or physical or psychological dependency. So the pharmacist should be proactive in finding what went wrong. Maybe a staff member is stealing it, etc etc. I know at the hospital if the count is wrong, no one leaves!!

Exactly my thoughts

They cannot be ignorant if there is a problem with someone making the pills disappear....

[trailmix 77]

Not saying anything about your friend, but morphine is a schedule II drug, which means it has a high potential for abuse or physical or psychological dependency. So the pharmacist should be proactive in finding what went wrong. Maybe a staff member is stealing it, etc etc. I know at the hospital if the count is wrong, no one leaves!!

Exactly my thoughts

They cannot be ignorant if there is a problem with someone making the pills disappear....

Yeah exactly, that's what I was thinking, there is something very strange about this (no reflection on the person - I am 100% sure that this was a pharmacy 'error').

Thanks for the link krikit, apparently Alberta does have a complaints process, ie: filling out the form and snail mailing it in.