From Mr P. J. Francis, MRPharmS
SIR,—Despite the large number of jobs available, many pharmacists express dissatisfaction with their profession. These complaints often take the form of fears about the direction of the profession, working conditions, or money.
These complaints are the symptoms, not the cause. Pharmacy can seem unsatisfying because we have no control over the writing of prescriptions, and yet we are supposed to be a profession.
Pharmacists have a lot of training in pharmacology, but have to adhere to the wording of prescriptions, right down to the last dot on the "i".
We all know that these lists are generated by secretaries at surgeries, who have varying degrees of experience.
Add to this the fact that nurses can prescribe, and that unqualified staff can run entire dispensaries at surgeries, and you have a bitter cocktail of resentment for pharmacists.
There must be prescribing pharmacists. I would love to have the chance to write and sign prescriptions after a doctor has made a diagnosis. I would be prepared to do extra study to gain the right, and to take full legal responsibility for prescribing the full range of drugs from aspirin to diamorphine.
If pharmacists were given this opportunity, many of their gripes would disappear, because they would feel their training was being used and respected. And the job would be more interesting, as well as being truly professional.
I do not know how to achieve this - but you have to start somewhere. Instead of channelling energy into making challenges to the status quo in a minor way (which achieves nothing but contempt and patronisation) we should push for big things. Those who do not ask, do not get. Perhaps some courses could even be thought up now, in preparation for the day when the law allows pharmacists to prescribe.
And if we do not? The Government will degrade pharmacy to non-professional status. It already sees pharmacists as overpaid pill counters, whatever it says. Are we?
Paul Francis
Northampton