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A former pharmacy manager at Tesco Pharmacy in Stirling has been suspended for 12 months after a number of high-risk dispensing errors were made under her supervision. 

Nichola Mary Johnstone worked as pharmacy manager at the supermarket chain’s Stirling Superstore on Wallace Street between September 2021 and April 2022, having previously worked as a superintendent pharmacist at a Glasgow independent.  

The General Pharmaceutical Council’s report on Ms Johnstone’s fitness to practise hearing, which concluded on March 4, states that a number of incidents were recorded from October 2021 onwards, commenting: “These included errors relating to strength, form, quantity, labelling and, in some cases, the wrong item being supplied.”

Ms Johnstone was “involved in a high number of these incidents in some capacity”. 

An informal meeting was arranged with her regional pharmacy manager on January 11, 2022 “to discuss performance concerns” including “dispensing accuracy, reflection processes and completion of required training”.  

In February 2022, the company carried out an incident review because of the high number of incidents reported at the branch. Subsequent incidents led to an investigatory meeting on March 29, and to Ms Johnstone being suspended pending further investigation on April 1. She resigned on April 21, 2022. 

Among other errors in which she was found to have been implicated, Ms Johnstone had knowingly supplied Espranor instead of Buprenorphine, had supplied methadone without checking whether the patient’s prescription was still valid, and had supplied 12 penicillin tablets to a patient who was prescribed 40 tablets.  

In the latter incident, she did not attempt to contact the patient after becoming aware of the error. 

The FtP committee noted that the mistakes were of a “basic nature” and that as an “experienced pharmacist” Ms Johnstone would have been familiar with the relevant regulations and SOPs and “would know the consequences of her actions,” which occurred “despite some form of support” from her employer. 

A “high percentage” of the errors logged at the branch were “attributable to the registrant,” the committee said, adding that “the risk to patients would have been obvious to any pharmacist”.

Ms Johnstone has not apologised for her actions or shown evidence of remedial efforts such as carrying out reflective practice or CPD, said the FtP Committee. She has applied for voluntary removal from the register and was not present or represented at the videolink hearing. 

The committee said it was clear from notes from her meetings with Tesco management that she “found it difficult to acknowledge what happened, to understand why it happened or to understand the impact of what happened”. 

A 12-month suspension order was imposed, with an interim order applied during the 28-day appeal period. 

The GPhC noted that Ms Johnstone’s papers for voluntary removal arrived the day before the hearing began and that it will clarify over the next 12 months whether the separate process involved in this is “an appropriate resolution”.