From Mr I. D. Scott, MRPharmS
SIR,—I would like to add a few points regarding the assistant’s
view aired by Mrs O’Neill (PJ, September 23, p445).
I have been a community pharmacist manager for over five years, having previously
worked in hospital pharmacy for six years, and part of my preregistration training
was in industry. I sympathise fully with Mrs O’Neill as I do with all assistants
including my own at times when they have to carry a lazy or, for want of a better
word, an incompetent locum. Most locums are very good and do not fall into these
categories but we all tend to remember the few that do cause problems.
As Mrs O’Neill stated, there is a lack of pharmacists and as managers we
are sometimes faced with either booking a poor locum or not getting a day off.
Pharmacists are no different from assistants in that we also need time off.
I do feel it is unfair to cite young pharmacists and hospital or industrial
pharmacists as being a problem. My experience has been that these pharmacists
are generally the keener ones who make an effort to keep up to date.
One problem they encounter which I certainly met when starting out as a community
locum (and in fact still see too often) is the inconsistencies in community
pharmacy. They know generally how things should be done but unfortunately there
are too many pharmacies around who show a total disregard for how things should
be done. It is so common in some cases that some pharmacists do not see that
it is wrong. For example, the loaning of prescription only medicines when a
customer has run out. The law is quite clear that prescription only medicines
can only be supplied to the public as an emergency supply (the circumstances
of which are clearly laid down) or against a prescription. There is no facility
in the law to loan POMs. Most locums are aware of this and feel compromised.
They know it is illegal to do but they know if they do not then they risk losing
a customer, which will upset the manager.
Also, the asking of the WWHAM questions. As survey after survey has shown, too
many pharmacies simply are not willing to fulfill this most basic of professional
obligations. The locum again knows they should ask the patient questions but
often if they do they are met with a non-co-operative response and the customer
threatening to go elsewhere because they do not ask questions there. Is it little
surprise that some locums feel compromised and try to keep out of it. At the
end of the day they are doing the manager a favour by giving them a day off.
I fully agree with Mrs O’Neill’s finishing sentiment that there are
problems which the pharmacy profession should be facing up to. Yes, there are
poor locums around but there are also poor proprietors and managers as well.
Please note I am not implying that Mrs O’Neill’s manager falls into
this category. I do not know him or her. The profession does need to address
this issue. To quote the letter by Mrs Payne (PJ, September 23, p444):
“How long before the media give us the treatment already suffered by the
medical profession?”
I do not feel that most locums, proprietors and managers are poor. As with customers,
one can have a thousand lovely customers in a day and one or two miserable,
aggressive ones. Which ones do you leave work at the end of the day thinking
about? It is usually not the nice ones.
D. Scott
Perranporth, Cornwall