Doctors are being urged to follow the 'three checks and seven rights' at all times to avoid a repeat of a drug prescription blunder that killed four patients of a Wong Tai Sin solo practitioner.
The rules are contained in the first comprehensive, bilingual 'Good Dispensing Practice Manual' released yesterday to 6,500 members of the Hong Kong Medical Association, which will be annexed to the Medical Council's Professional Code and Conduct.
The booklet opens with a preface explaining that some of the guidelines might seem trivial - 'however, a chain will break at its weakest link'.
The patients who died were among 153 people with stomach ailments given the diabetes drug gliclazide by Ronald Li Sai-lai.
The co-chairman of the association's Taskforce on Drug Dispensing, Cheng Chi-man, said the guidebook covers the process of dispensing, from ordering of medicines from drug companies to handing them to patients.
The three 'checks' are checking the container label before taking it off the shelf, checking it against the prescription and checking it before putting the container away. The seven 'rights' are checking for right date, patient, drug, dose, route, frequency and container.