A pharmacist who worked at Portage la Prairie’s Pharmasave for just over a year has plead guilty to professional misconduct before the College of Pharmacists of Manitoba after thousands of doses of medication went unaccounted for during his tenure.
In a released decision, the college said Glen Pauch had worked at the Pharmasave from June of 2020 to October of 2021. During that time, he administered doses of drugs like Apo-hydromorphone and oxycodone without a prescription.
“Mr. Pauch failed to report to the Registrar of the College that he was suffering from a mental condition and had a diagnosis of an opioid-use disorder, which might interfere with his ability to practice in a safe and effective manner,” said the College in their written decision.
According to the written decision, Pauch had “failed to ensure that a record of the receipt of M3P scheduled controlled substances was created at the Pharmacy” for a total of 8,500 doses. The decision also states he “consumed unprescribed controlled substances”. He voluntarily surrendered his pharmacist licence on October 27, 2021.
In addition to a fine of $25,000, Pauch was ordered to pay $75,000 in investigative costs to the college. While he will be prohibited from being a pharmacy manager or preceptor for five years, he will not lose his license.
“Mr. Pauch has admitted to making negative manual adjustments to the Pharmacy’s perpetual inventory (i.e. the inventory was adjusted to “remove” the drug from the perpetual inventory) on 81 occasions involving over 5,000 doses where Mr. Pauch used false or misleading explanations, reasons that were false, misleading, implausible or in conflict with other Pharmacy documents or where he used no reason at all,” the decision reads. “Many of these adjustments involved various brands of hydromorphone, methylphenidate, targeted benzodiazepines and oxycodone.”
Pauch will have five years from the date of the decision to pay the fine and cost contributions.
