Pharmacist sanctioned over botched eye drops

Nicholas Bova, who was found guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct last year in relation to the issue, substituted Dextran T(500) with Dextran T(500) Sulphate without first checking it was safe for use in the eye.This resulted in six patients suing the surgeon, Dr James McAlister, his ployer, and Bova after they were left with severe corneal haze and scarring as a result.All of the patients were attpting to stall degeneration caused by keratoconus by undergoing corneal cross-linking, but now face an uncertain future with the prospect of multiple corneal transplants to try and correct the damage.The Queensland Health Quality and Complaints Commission (now the Office of the Health Ombudsman) found that McAlister was not responsible for the error and referred the complaint about Bova to NSW authorities.Aside from dispensing medicine that was a potentially unsafe substitution, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found Bova guilty of several other offences.These included, but were not limited to, professional misconduct for having dispensed oxytocin without valid prescriptions, and testosterone before date of supply on several occasions, and a failure to maintain a drug register for drugs of addiction at his pharmacy.Bova has been banned from personally compounding any pharmaceutical products for human use, and is also not to allow the bulk extporaneous compounding of any pharmaceutical product for the purposes of supply for human use.He has also been ordered to undertake an extensive CPD program over a three-year period, and will be subject to audits by the Pharmacy Council of NSW.