Doctor: don't let the pharmacy swap your prescription
In defence of respect for the prescription and responsibility in dispensing medicines.
The title is an appeal to colleagues: "Doctor: don't let the pharmacy swap your prescription". Pedro addresses doctors, not the public, to recall that prescribing is a medical act and that a swap at the counter, without criteria, transfers to the patient a risk they did not choose.
The context is the same as that year's texts on generics and similars. In 2004, substitution by similars without proof of equivalence was common and legal. Pedro argues for responsibility in dispensing and for communication between pharmacy and consulting room.
Read today, it is a document about the relationship of trust he cultivated. The patient who left the Campo Limpo clinic with a prescription knew the doctor expected to see them back, with the right medicine.
This article is part of the historical archive of Pedro Moretti Guedes. It should be read as a document of its time: Medicine, pharmacology and health recommendations have changed since publication.
The original clipping is preserved by the family and will be published here once the scan can be checked against the original.