From Ms M. R. Hook, MRPharmS
SIR,-A recent BBC television Watchdog programme included an interview with Mr Roger Odd (head of scientific and professional support, Royal Pharmaceutical Society) on the topic of over-the-counter sale of Motilium and an advertising campaign designed to create demand for a treatment for dysmotility.
Mr Odd was seen to pour capsules from a tablet triangle. Why was he not seen to be advising a customer about health issues, especially as most solid medicines are foil packed? We should avoid this depiction at all costs and gain public acceptance of the role we fulfil for the greatest proportion of our working week.
Mr Odd was also heard to suggest that pharmacists had difficulty in refusing sales when a customer requested an item by name. Has he forgotten that the pharmacist must be able to refuse any sale which he or she deems inappropriate? To suggest we find this difficult is almost tantamount to professional suicide.
There was no suggestion that customers would be subjected to the WWHAM filter and referral to ensure the sale was appropriate. This was in spite of the fact that the interviewer had suggested people might purchase Motilium to treat ulcers.
Has Mr Odd lost the plot? Does he need an extremely urgent high dose of "Pharmacy in a New Age" and media training in order for pharmacy to be promoted as a dynamic and confident profession willing to work as part of a team with other health professionals?
Margaret Ruth Hook
Bristol
Mr ODD replies: The short piece regarding advertising of medicines that was shown on the BBC Watchdog programme was edited out of a much longer interview that had taken place about two weeks before the programme was shown. In the fuller interview, the role of the pharmacist and how he or she ensures the customer is supplied with the appropriate medicine was explained in some depth - but this was regrettably cut out of the televised programme. So, too, was the introduction sequence showing the pharmacist counselling a patient and the key message that the public should be encouraged to speak to the pharmacist.