Pharmacist admonished for prescribing dangerous drug to pregnant woman

The pharmacist had mistakenly provided a pregnant woman with medicine that could have caused her baby to abort or suffer foetal abnormalities. File photo: PA

A pharmacist who mistakenly provided a pregnant woman with medicine that could have caused her baby to abort or suffer foetal abnormalities has been admonished by his regulatory body.

An inquiry into the conduct of locum pharmacist, Donal O’Donovan, by the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland was concluded today after he gave undertakings about his future conduct and not to repeat the actions which led to the complaint to the profession’s watchdog.

The PSI’s Professional Conduct Committee made the additional decision to admonish Mr O’Donovan based on the evidence and legal submissions in the case.

The PCC committee refused an application by counsel for Mr O’Donovan, Helen Callanan SC, to have the admonishment of her client withdrawn.

Ms Callanan expressed surprise that the sanction was being imposed in addition to the undertaking offered by Mr O’Donovan to bring the inquiry to a conclusion.

She claimed the sanction was “disproportionate” given her client had “made a single error in an unblemished career” and had been living with the inquiry hanging over him for the past three years.

Ms Callanan argued Mr O’Donovan should be given the benefit for his exemplary response to the allegations and for the integrity he had shown over his mistake.

She said the additional imposition of a sanction could be counterproductive for the PSI in encouraging complainants to come forward and report problems with pharmacists.

The committee’s chairperson, Mark Kane, said admonishment was considered “the most lenient sanction” as the complaint related to a serious matter.

Mr O’Donovan was charged with three counts of poor professional performance over his mistake in dispensing a wrong and clinically inappropriate drug while working at Corrigan’s Pharmacy on Malahide Road, Clontarf, on June 10, 2018, as well as failing to offer advice to the customer about her medication.

The inquiry heard Mr O’Donovan had misread a handwritten prescription provided by the patient’s doctor, Karen Flood, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin.

Evidence was heard that the woman, known as Patient A, who had previously suffered multiple miscarriages, was given Cytotec – a treatment for gastric ulcers – when she should have been provided with Cyclogest, a drug used to increase the chances of a full-term pregnancy.

Several witnesses informed the PCC committee that Cytotec should not be given to pregnant women or women of child-bearing age.

Patient A, who went on to have a healthy baby, described how she had tried to vomit up the drug after she realised that she had taken two doses of Cytotec before realising the potential harm it could cause.

Although she acknowledged some of the handwriting on the prescription was unclear, an expert witness, Helena Buchanan, said Mr O’Donovan should have questioned why a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist would be prescribing Cytotec and the fact that it was being given to a woman should have “raised a red flag”.

As part of his undertaking, Mr O’Donovan, who no longer works as a community pharmacist, promised to carefully review all prescriptions and ensure they are clinically appropriate for dispensing in future as well as advising all customers about their prescriptions.