From C. Morris, MRPharmS
SIR, — It seems that Superdrug can answer a Health Secretary commissioned review of pharmacy which "is yet to report". Is precognition part of Pharmacy in a New Age?
It is right in pointing out that the present system is ambiguous, but does that mean complete deregulation is needed?
I feel there are a lot of laws in our society which are ambiguous. Perhaps we should try anarchy. No more laws, no more police, no more ambiguity!
We are told that regulation is to stop clustering of pharmacies, and this is no longer needed. We are then informed that by deregulating we would get a "natural concentration" of pharmacies where customer demands are greatest.
Another aspect which is troubling Superdrug is the lack of pharmacies in deprived neighbourhoods.
I cannot say that I have been to every Superdrug store, but each one I have seen has been in either a city centre, a town centre or a shopping centre area, most being within a few hundred yards of a pharmacy. Am I to assume that if deregulation takes place Superdrug will move to these poor deprived neighbourhoods or will it just get contracts for the ones in the town centres.
The multiples may not be too financially challenged by this but the independent pharmacist will be.
As a locum I work for multiples and independents alike The only time I have seen shops where the pharmacist will supply a full out-of-hours emergency service is in the independents. This is partly due to the need to hold on to every customer to try to keep their financial head above water, but mainly due to a real rapport with the people they see month-in, month-out, or even day-in, day-out.
Do not get me wrong. I was a manager for two multiples and I did not supply out-of-hours service. I did not feel I got paid enough. (Money comes in again!) But the pharmacist who taught me more about being a pharmacist than I ever learnt at university once made a house call at 6am on Christmas morning.
Perhaps Superdrug feels that competition would improve services to the public. Not all independents are angels in white overalls. But I bet that there would not be one shop of theirs which would decline a deregulated NHS contract because the independent down the road provided a more than adequate service to the community!
I seem to have raged on and on here, so I will leave my comments on "price competition is not a factor in neighbourhood pharmacies" to your imagination.
Chris Morris
Newquay, Cornwall