From Mr A. J. Rogers, MRPharmS
SIR-Allow me to explain the "deafening silence from practitioners"
to Dr Goodyer and his colleagues at the King’s pharmacy practice group (PJ,
October 28, p650). We are sick of reports and lectures from Ministers, civil
servants, academics and from our own professional bodies telling us what we
should be doing. We are sick of having our remuneration cut, our margins cut,
and our already antisocial hours extended. We are sick of being told that we
are guilty of fraudulent dispensing, and over-the-counter profiteering. We are
sick of false dawns and broken promises. We are sick of platitudes from Ministers,
telling us what a good job we are doing, how much potential we have and how
much it is wasted, but how short of cash they are. We are sick of being paid
peanuts for pilots which are never rolled out. We are sick of a shortage of
locums and managers. In place of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee’s
criteria of recruitment, retention and motivation we see disillusion, demoralisation
and depression.
I came into this profession 27 years ago with a vision and a mission to change
the way pharmacy was practised. Over the years, in an effort to pursue that
aim, I have been actively involved in local pharmaceutical affairs and have
tried to keep up to date, while at the same time running a successful business.
For years, the pace of change was agonisingly slow, but now, suddenly, this
Government wants to change everything overnight. It is in danger of throwing
the baby out with the bathwater.
The verdict on me, and many others like me, is "good, but not good enough",
according to Andrew McKeon (PJ, October 28, p638). So we are to be "modernised"
along with the rest of the National Health Service and half the country. This
is to be achieved with the help of NHS Direct, NHS Direct Online, NHS Direct
information points, an action team for medicines management - all under the
auspices of the new NHS Modernisation Agency, which will draw on the success
of the primary care development team, and which will complement the work of
a joint task force on concordance, and the Leadership Centre for Health. Our
involvement with one-stop primary care centres, medicines management, repeat
dispensing, out-of-hours access, e-pharmacy, local pharmaceutical services,
a modernised contractual framework, supplementary and independent prescribing,
life long learning, clinical governance and professional regulation will be
achieved with the help of an improving working lives tool-kit. The amount of
red tape will also be reduced!
With 26 pages of such gobbledegook, is it surprising that the NHS Plan for
England was received with stunned silence and disbelief? Has its author ever
set foot in a busy community pharmacy? Will there be any money left to pay pharmacists
after all the quangos have finished junketing? Most important of all, is this
what patients really need and want?
If pharmacists are concerned about how they will cope with the pharmacy of the
future, they should spare a thought for poor old Mrs Jones - she has enough
difficulty coping with her hair net, let alone the internet! Of course change
is necessary, and there are many worthwhile ideas in this report. But just as
change has been too slow over the past 25 years, so the pace of change is now
too fast for the profession to cope. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s role
is to represent its members, but it is perceived by them to be aloof, even acquiescent
to their demise. We need help, not lectures! Now the silence has been broken,
is anybody at Lambeth listening?
Alan Rogers
Ewell, Surrey