Tracking the counterfeits

Had a very busy week last week catching up after the bank holiday and dealing with the patient recalls on the parallel imported counterfeit medicines.

The local GP surgeries gave us excellent support by quickly ringing all the patients who could have been supplied with these medicines (we did have telephone numbers for some of the patients affected).

We also had to think about how to explain this to patients and decided on the terminology ‘faulty batches’ rather than ‘counterfeit medicines’.

One patient had actually been supplied with one of the batches of olanzapine that was being recalled.

We are now left with one patient who we can’t get hold of. The surgery has rung him, we have knocked on his door during our deliveries, and we have also sent him a letter in case he is currently away on holiday.