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CHEMIST’S SHOP

Chemist's shop is an institution of health service which supplies the population with medicines and medical things. It is a place where a wide variety of articles is sold and prescription can be made; drugs are composed, dispensed, stored and sold. Chemist's shops carry out both retail and wholesale selling of medicines and preparation of drugs in pharmaceutical properties. They are differentiated into municipal, public and private ones. An ordinary chemist's shop has a chemist's department, a prescription one, proper working rooms and a hall for visitors.

At the chemist's department one can buy drugs ready to use, dif­ferent things for medical care (hot water bottles, medicine droppers, mustard plasters, cupping glasses, thermometers and so on) and medi­cal herbs.

At the chemist's all medicines are kept in drug cabinets, open shelves and refrigerators. Poisonous, drastic, narcotic and psychotro­pic drugs can be sold by prescription only. These drugs are potent and can be dangerous if taken in an overdose. Therefore, their use must be strictly controlled.

All containers of dispensed medicines should be clearly labeled with the following particulars: name of the patient, name of the medi­cine, correct dosage instructions, date of dispensing, expiry date, warnings or contradictions, name and address of the pharmacy.

The pharmacist should instruct the patient about: the necessity to follow the prescribed directions carefully; the dangers of overdosage; the problems resulting from an inadequate dosage; the expected side effects of the drug; the proper storage of the drug, etc. The pharmacist should also advise the patient about the dangers of taking drugs for longer periods unless he is under care of a physician. The patient should be warned about the danger of letting other members of the family or neighbours use his prescribed medications.

A complete prescription is made up of six essential parts: the pa­tient's name, the superscription, the inscription, the subscription, the signature and the prescriber's name. The superscription is the tradi­tional symbol Rx, which always appears at the beginning of the pre­scription. (It represents the contraction of the Latin verb "recipe", i. e. to take). The inscription is the body of the prescription. This con­tains the ingredients and quantities of each. In the complex prescrip­tion containing multiple ingredients, the inscription may consist of three parts: medication, adjuvant and vehicle. The subscription always follows the inscription and contains the writer's instructions to the pharmacist. This designates the form of preparation (mixture, tablets, ointment, etc.), the strength in words and figures) and the quantity of total number (in words and figures. The signature consists of the di­rections to be given to the patient. This information is intended to be placed on the label of the container in which the medication is dis­pensed. The prescriber's name is the part of the prescription that guarantees its authenticity.

Before the best compound of medicines is found, the toxicologist is called in to assess the safety factor of the drug or the series. In most cases the best compound will be that with the highest therapeutic in­dex, i.e. the ratio of the lethal dose to the active one. The most potent compound is not always the best: frequently, a less active but also less toxic one will be chosen. Once the toxicologists have agreed on the safety of the compound, the next step is its clinical trial.

The realization of medicines is promoted by presenting the license given by the State Department of Quality and Safety Control and Production of Medicines and Medical Articles.

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