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The allergy, interaction and out-of-stock steps are in Prescribing and Dispense a prescription. This page covers the rules around them.
The allergy check matches names and drug classes against recorded allergies. It does not infer cross-reactions between different classes, and it cannot see an allergy nobody has recorded. The clinical content is awaiting clinical sign-off. It supports your judgement. It does not replace it.

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Fail closed

If the allergy check cannot run at the counter, dispensing is held. PHB answers 503 with dispense.allergy_check_unavailable and never shows “no allergies” when it could not look. The drug interaction check is awaiting clinical sign-off and switched off, so check interactions yourself.

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Controlled drugs

  • Signing a Schedule I or II prescription needs a security re-check with your device key. Without it, PHB asks you to verify your device first.
  • At the counter, a controlled drug is always stock-gated, even when your pharmacy does not track general inventory. If the count is short, the dispense fails with inventory.insufficient. Record stock first or flag the item out of stock.

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Pharmacist verification

The three checks (pharmacist, link, premises) are in PCN verification. What you see depends on a platform setting. The default is to warn. An unverified pharmacist or premises can still dispense, and PHB records each time. PHB can switch the setting to blocking. Then: The setting applies to every pharmacy at once. It is not set per facility.

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Medication records: otc and external_rx

Record a sale puts a medicine on a patient’s record without a PHB prescription. Each record carries an origin:
  • otc: an over-the-counter sale.
  • external_rx: a paper prescription from outside PHB. You can note the outside prescriber.
A medication record is not a PHB prescription. It carries no prescribing authority, and the allergy and interaction checks do not run on it. Recording needs a verified pharmacist, and the patient must be present and confirmed. See Record a sale.
The clinical model for medication records is awaiting clinical sign-off.