By JACK MWEWA –
MWEWA Kapakala, who is acting executive director at Ndola’s Arthur Davison Children’s Hospital (ADH), has said pharmacists have the right to question prescriptions given by doctors.
In the wake of complaints against a named pharmacist at (ADH) said to be questioning and changing prescriptions given by doctors, Dr Kapakala said pharmacists’ queries acted as a safety check.
“Yes, pharmacists have the right to question and in some cases change medicines prescribed by a doctor if they notice mistakes in the prescription,” he said.
Dr Kapakala said that in the case of ADH where some intern doctors also made prescriptions, there was a likelihood of either overdose or under-dose, therefore, the pharmacist could advise.
“You must know that children’s dosages are prescribed according to age and weight, hence the need to be thorough with dosage,” he said.
Dr Kapakala, who is head of clinical services, said what would be wrong was the pharmacist to completely refuse to give medicines.
He advised patients faced with such challenges to seek the intervention of the hospital administration than rushing to the Press.
