PTA

PTA stands for pharmazeutisch-technische Assistentin, the qualified technical staff who do much of the daily work in a German pharmacy.

Two rules about a PTA are constantly confused in coverage of the Apothekenreform, and getting them the wrong way round creates real liability:

1. A PTA may administer vaccines, which has its own legal basis in § 20c Infektionsschutzgesetz, and the ApoVWG widened pharmacy vaccination to all non-live vaccines.
2. A PTA may not carry out the venöse Blutentnahme, because § 11c Apothekengesetz reserves it for an approbierter Apotheker who has completed an ärztliche Schulung.

The puncture may not be delegated to a PTA either, and the only permitted delegate is a Pharmazeut im Praktikum working under supervision.

The two rules differ because vaccination and venous blood collection were regulated separately and at different times, rather than because one is considered harder than the other. Nothing in the reform merges them.

What a PTA may do around a blood draw is support it:

• Preparing the room and the materials belongs to the PTA.
• Handling the documentation belongs to the PTA as well.
• Sample handling and dispatch can be done by a PTA.

Aufklärung, Anamnese and consent stay with the pharmacist carrying out the draw. For a pharmacy planning a diagnostics offering this is a staffing question before it is a legal one, because the service is limited by how many trained pharmacists are working that day rather than by the size of the team.