The Pharmacists' Defence Association is a not-for-profit membership organisation that supports the needs of individual pharmacists, pharmacy students and pharmacy undergraduates in the United Kingdom. Membership of the PDA includes insurance, union membership and defence association benefits, which all aim to assist and support pharmacists in their working lives. In June 2022, the PDA reported having more than 34,000 members. in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The National Association of Women Pharmacists became a semi-autonomous network within the association in 2019 and the PDA subsequently launched the LGBT+ Pharmacists network, BAME Pharmacists network and the Ability Network for pharmacists with a disability.

The PDA Union

The PDA Union is an independent

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

. that runs parallel to the PDA and has its own democratic structure and rules. The union exists to give pharmacists an independent voice at work.

Safer Pharmacies Charter

The Safer Pharmacies Charter was produced by PDA members and consists of seven commitments to improve patient safety through better working conditions for pharmacists.

Elizabeth Lee

Elizabeth Lee was a pharmacist who was given a 3-month suspended prison sentence for an inadvertent dispensing error at a Tesco pharmacy in 2007, reduced to a £300 fine on appeal in 2010. Her case received national media attention and was the catalyst of a substantial national effort in the UK to decriminalize inadvertent dispensing errors. She was defended by the Pharmacists' Defence Association between 2007 and 2010. The case has been used since that time in pharmacy education as an aid to explain the legislation applicable to the supply of medicines by pharmacists in the UK.

Pharmacist independent prescribers

In 2019 the association issued urgent guidance to its members after several serious incidents, including fatalities, involving pharmacist independent prescribers working in GP practices prescribing inappropriately or offering poor advice. They were particularly concerned about prescribing and clinical advice for patients who were not physically present, or without reference to clinical records and for walk-in patients where a diagnosis might be needed. They were also concerned about employers in online pharmacies expecting prescription of high-risk medicines, like controlled drugs, without reference to the patient’s GP.

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