Read the text. Chemist's shop is an institution of health service which supplies the population with medicines and medical things

CHEMIST’S SHOP

Chemist's shop is an institution of health service which supplies the population with medicines and medical things. They are differentiated into municipal, public and private ones. It is a place where a wide variety of articles is sold and prescription can be made. Drugs are composed, dispensed, stored and sold there. Chemist's shops carry out both retail and wholesale selling of medicine and preparation of drugs. 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 shop remedies are kept in drug cabinets, open shelves and refrigerators. 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 single dose and the total dosage are indicated on the label. Poisonous, drastic, narcotic and psychotro­pic drugs are sold by prescription only. 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, drugs for cough and headache, cardiac medicines) and medi­cal herbs.

The pharmacist should instruct the patient about 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. If the patient is not under care of a physician, the pharmacist should advise the patient about the dangers of taking drugs for longer periods. The patient should be warned about the danger of letting other members of the family use his prescribed medications.

Some drugs need to be prescribed by a doctor. 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 their quantities. 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 doctor's instructions to the pharmacist. This designates the form of preparation (mixture, tablets, ointment, etc.), and the quantity of total number. 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.

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.