which? report

[cymruchemist]

which? report today slates pharmacy staff. By proxy this damages pharmacy as a profession and pharmacists as professionals.

I am deeply worried about the future of our profession, we do nothing to sell oursleves and doctors laugh at us. Community pharmacists- we need to pull our socks up. We're training technicians to do our jobs, and what are we going to do? well- so i was told by a multiple i once worked for- "freeing" us up to give this advice. (er. no- we're round the corner out of earshot doing a waste of time MUR for £27)
The which? report doesnt really make the difference between errors in OTC avice we make as pharmacists which are serious and should be treated as incidents, and general assistants not selling as per WWHAM or maybe never having been trained in the first place. We are responsible for our staff while we are on duty and the advice they give, but when youre not in a regular store you have no idea what you are walking into.
I bet everyone on here has a story about understaffing and non trained staff on the counter. Ignoring this is DAMAGING our future. If we cant get a positive spin soon, GPs and nurses will be quite happy to do our jobs for us, they'll agree a better renumeration anyway and we'll be left with nothing!! What implications this has for us when we try and ask for more responsiible roles and being let out of the pharmacy to go on visits?

next time the assistant asks you to speak to the customer for something simple when you have a zillion scripts waiting, and the area manager on the phone barking about targets, think- that customer is your priority-we've buried our heads juggling demands set to us and the result has been this damaging report!!


(phew- i feel a little better now!)

[Pharmanaut]

next time the assistant asks you to speak to the customer for something simple when you have a zillion scripts waiting, and the area manager on the phone barking about targets, think- that customer is your priority-we've buried our heads juggling demands set to us and the result has been this damaging report!!


(phew- i feel a little better now!)

Good posting, but you are leaning against an open door.

Let's hope the 'bean counters' and 'head office suits' get the message.

[cymruchemist]

Thats the problem isnt it? I was at a CPD night this week- same old faces every time. preaching to the converted all the time!

[Nik]

I was reading that Which? report and came across something which seemed to confuse me.

Whilst doing their "investigation" they were told quote "... a pharmacist cannot sell the medication (Imigran) without a doctor first diagnosing migraine - this is wrong".

I always thought that Imigran could only be sold OTC to people with previously diagnosed migraines ? I'm quoting the BNF (54) here - "Sumatriptan 50mg tablets can be sold to the public to treat previously diagnosed migraine;max daily dose 100mg".

So is Which? right or am I ?

[JonF]

Just been googling and found this

Imigran Recovery: Frequently asked questions

From my understanding we can sell the product either way

[Sir_Dispensalot]

which ought to do a report on doctor's receptionists. Now that would be worth a read!

[cymruchemist]

they also had a GP on BBC breakfast critising the EHC supply saying that she sometimes sees people who have had it more than once in a month which should "NEVER happen". Some pharmacists are working to PDGs which allow this. I worked on our PDG and the consultant gynaecologist said that this can happen. The BBC GP did fairly say though that of course the patient might not tell the truth to a pharmacist and of course have been to more than one pharmacy. Do we want medicines more accessible or not? David Pruce from RPSGB was on aswell and he was really good saying that if people ultimately choose self care and therfore opt to see a pharmacist rather than a GP (which is a good thing), then they have some responsibilty to offer up certain bits of info. although they sholuld be asked anyway, he said patients should offer up info re other medical conditions etc.

[Nik]

Just been googling and found this

Imigran Recovery: Frequently asked questions

From my understanding we can sell the product either way

So that seems to sort the problem out - thanks ! Although shouldn't diagnosing migraines be a doctor's job ? I'm not slating pharmacists but their job is not to diagnose and is a questionnaire really going to do the trick ?

[kemzero]

IMHO ALL pharmacy support staff should be trained mainly to dispense accurately and triage patients appropriately .ALL pharmacy staff should be regulated, including sales assistants


Pharmacists should be out there providing advice and excellent pharmaceutical care , not counting out tablets, the NVQ level 3 course is fit for purpose only for the dispensing process (the technical aspects of pharmacy)

All prescriptions and OTC sales should be screened /assessed for clinical appropriateness before being dispensed or sold by a pharmacist. The pharmacist should devise a list of certain GSL or Ps that require liitle or no intervention, or delegate some aspects of the sale to a senior member of the support team

All OTC medicines should be reviewed and a new category should be created (particularly with recently deregulated medicines) we need a Pharmacists- only list .

[Jeff]

Good posting, but you are leaning against an open door.

Let's hope the 'bean counters' and 'head office suits' get the message.

Note that the multiples with the head office bean counters did better than the warm and cuddly independents.

Jeff