Affiliations: University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Iuliu
Haţieganu", Faculty of Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Ofelia Crişan, Facultatea de
Farmacie, Str. Ion Creang� nr. 12, Cluj-Napoca 400010, România. Tel.:
+40 264 430 527; Fax: +40 264 430 527; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: The new provisions of the Deontological Code of the Pharmacist
refer, first of all, to proclaiming its adherence to the Universal Charter of
Human Rights and the Charter of European Pharmacy, but also to defending the
patients' rights, as a primary goal of the Code. The expression of these
principles brings about the obligation for the professional association to
reorient its activities, mainly towards ensuring the surveillance of the
observance of professional ethics, an activity that had been marginalised in
recent times, when a priority had been to defend the financial interests of
pharmacists. The new Code also provides that one of the ethical standards of
the pharmacist should be to supply services to the patient, something that will
oblige each and every pharmacist to redefine his or her daily professional
exercise. In accordance with the new code, it is possible to refuse to supply
services only on grounds of serving the interest of the patient's good health,
which presupposes an involvement, a decision and a responsibility of the
pharmacist in the relationship with the patient. As far as emergency
pharmaceutical services are concerned, the innovation of the Code consists in
allowing to issue, in the absence of any medical prescription, under well
defined circumstances, of certain ethical drugs. This provision has an impact
both upon the exhoneration of disciplinary responsability for the infringement
of some legal provisions, as well as the fact of making the pharmacist take
responsibility for making a decision in the given circumstances.
