Stricter Code For Chemists

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30846, 3 September 1965, Page 3

Stricter Code For Chemists

f.Vew Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON. Sept. 2. A new professional disciplinary code for chemists, sought by the Pharmacy Board, is included in a Pharmacy Amendment Bill introduced in Parliament todav.

Drug addiction, habitual drunkenness, offences against the Social Security. Poisons or Dangerous Drugs Act and wilful defiance of specified Pharmaceutical Society rules hare been added to grave impropriety, infamous conduct or professional misconduct as grounds on which the board may, on suspicion, direct disciplinary committee investigations. Disciplinary powers, including suspension, censure, fine or deregistra'ion are generally unaltered although the maximum fine which the board may impose, provided

the misconduct does not constitute a court offence, is doubled to £lOO. Those suspended will not be forced to sell their pharmacies under law which prevents all but chemists from conducting pharmacies, but they will not be entitled to take part in the management of pharmacies. With the approval of the board, service in a military dispensary may be treated a service in apprenticeship to a chemist. The bill authorised the making of regulations prescribing practising fees and providing for the inspection of books and records of pharmacy owners.