Bureaucrats that never fail to disappoint

I got a email from a FL Pharmacist that works for one of the BIG BOYS. It would seem that Pharmacist was told by  supervisors that the Rx dept where she/he was PIC was buying/selling too many opiates and had to CUT BACK. It wasn’t as if this Rx dept had a number of “questionable pts”… this particular Pharmacist had cultivated a sizeable chronic pain pt following.

Back in 2015 the FL Board of Pharmacy (BOP) passed new regulations that stated that Pharmacists were to start looking for a reason to fill a controlled Rx rather than start looking for a reason not to fill a controlled Rx.

The effective date of this new regulation was the end of 2015. At the time, I questioned if this new regulation was just another “feel good regulation”… the BOP could point to what they had accomplished and that there would be very little action on enforcement.  FL Pharmacists were required to have two hours of continued education (CE) by the end of 2017. The FL BOP decided that they could “educate ” common sense into Pharmacists as to why they should fill legit controlled Rxs for chronic pain pts.   IMO, I figured that the FL BOP would “sit on their hands” until all the Pharmacists had the opportunity to meet the mandatory CE requirement. Given the FL BOP abt TWO YEARS in which they would have to DO NOTHING in regards to enforcement of this new regulation.

This particular FL Pharmacist felt that the instructions from HQ to reduce the dispensing of controlled Rxs was in violation of the Pharmacist’s professional discretion as provided under the Pharmacy Practice Act and would cause this Pharmacist to refuse to fill legit controlled Rxs and in conflict with the new regulation.

This Pharmacist reached out to the FL BOP and filed a complaint over this issue. Apparently, this Pharmacist’s complaint was not filed using the “proper format” or “proper channel”… so the complaint was IGNORED.

The primary charge of the Boards of Pharmacy is to protect the health/safety of the general public.  According to the FL BOP website:

floridaspharmacy.gov/the-board/

The Florida Board of Pharmacy consists of nine members appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate.

Does anyone suspect that political contributions to election campaigns has a lot to do with who is appointed to the BOP ? The last time that I looked at the make up of the FL BOP.. the lowest ranking non-practicing Pharmacist on the board was a DISTRICT MANAGER for one of the major chain pharmacies.

So much for the FL BOP’s charge of protecting the public’s health and safety ???

Filed under: General Problems