Archive 2012

Fungal Nail Treatment To Be Provided By Pharmacists As Non-Prescription Medicine

September 06, 2012

Tuesday, July 17, 2012: A nail lacquer, commonly used in the treatment of fungal nail infections, is the latest medicine to be made available from pharmacists without a prescription, it has been announced.  The move has been welcomed by the PSI (Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland), the pharmacy regulator.

The treatment was previously only available on prescription after a visit to a doctor, but will now be available directly from a consultation with a pharmacist.  The PSI has now issued guidance to advise pharmacists in respect to the sale and safe supply of Curanail following the Irish Medicines Board’s decision.

“There is a clear and emerging role for pharmacists, as medicine experts, to provide certain medications with a proven safety profile, used in the management and treatment of minor ailments, directly to patients,” said PSI Head of Communications Kate O’Flaherty. “Facilitating access to these medicines, such as Curanail, with the associated pharmacist professional advice and information, can create significant value and health benefits for patients.   It is also very much in line with international best practice, as well as the PSI’s Pharmacy Ireland 2020 vision.  The guidance we have issued to pharmacists will now support adequate consultation with individual patients to ensure safe and appropriate usage.”

The guidance issued by the PSI states that each time the medicine is supplied, the pharmacist must be satisfied that, in the exercise of his or her professional judgment, the supply of such a medicine is safe and appropriate for the individual patient.  Consultation and discussion with patients should take place in the pharmacy’s patient consultation area, with safe storage of the medicine to be the direct responsibility of the pharmacist at all times.

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