On Thursday media reported the case of a Lahti pharmacy suspected of bungling customers' prescriptions. The Finnish Medicines Agency Fimea said that it had initiated the process of revoking the license of the pharmacy, which is located in Lahti’s Renkomäki district. The agency added that it had filed a formal request for a police investigation.
Fimea said that the pharmacy in question had previously received written warnings about dispensing errors, but that they did not seem to have any effect.
Director of the agency’s medical sector control unit Eija Pelkonen explained that Fimea had no mandate to shut down the pharmacy. She speculated that such action would probably fall to the police.
"I can’t say that. But I know that according to the law Fimea does not have that kind of mandate," she commented Friday morning on Yle’s Aamu-tv breakfast show.
Call for legislative changes
Pelkonen and Vesa Kujala, pharmaceutical director of the Association of Finnish Pharmacies, agreed that existing legislation should be amended to give Fimea the power to close down errant pharmacies.
"Officials need to have sufficiently robust tools when these kinds of serious malpractices occur," Kujala added.
The pharmacist association representative pledged his organisation’s support for such legislative reforms, in the event it is invited to comment on a draft bill.
Fimea said that following the disclosure of dispensing errors, many customers had come forward to offer feedback about the Lahti pharmacy.