Pharmacy needs a "social conscience"

Community pharmacies need to develop a social conscience and become more involved with the communities which they serve if they are to have a role in the future, according to Lloyds Pharmacy, the retail division of Gehe UK Plc. Speaking in Birmingham on February 3 at a conference on "Health networking" organised by Lloyds Pharmacy, Mr Andrew Murdock (pharmacy director, Lloyds) said that pharmacy was looking at pharmaceutical care or medicines management for its role beyond dispensing. However, he believed that these might not be enough to secure a successful future for community pharmacy. Before the foundation of the National Health Service pharmacies were the "hub of health and social knowledge in a community" and he believed that they needed to become so and be recognised as such again.

CHAT centres give out 100-120 leaflets per week

Mr Murdock called on the Government to recognise what pharmacy could do for its wider aims in improving public health, to support pharmacy in delivering it and to fund pharmacy to provide the service. This would mean moving away from the the current dispensing based remuneration model which rewarded pharmacists for keeping patients on long-term medication rather than helping them in other ways.
Lloyds Pharmacy has established CHAT centres in five of its pharmacies. These devote up to 10 per cent of the floor area of the pharmacy to the provision of information leaflets and space for advice services (PJ, December 12, 1998, p917). The fifth is due to open in the Lloyds branch at Sandy, Bedfordshire, later this month. Mr Murdock said that between 100 and 120 leaflets per week were being given out through the existing centres. The company is also planning a trial of a touchscreen information service run by Start Here. The service offers access to a database of charities and support groups.
Lloyds Pharmacy is involved in two health living centre funding bids. One, at Littleport, Cambridgeshire, will look at how social and health information can be provided to outlying villages in a rural area. The second, at Dudley, West Midlands, will extend the role of the existing CHAT centre in an urban area. Lloyds is also involved in the Dudley education action zone project.
The conference was attended by representatives of a wide range of organisations, including local authorities, health authorities, universities, charities, Government agencies and churches. As well as presentations, the audience was given a performance of a specially written work by the Loudmouth theatre company, entitled "Is this a pharmacy?", which emphasised the benefits of health and social information provided through pharmacies from the point of view of a pharmacist and a customer.