From Mr I. Abrahams, MRPharmS
SIR,—So another year approaches with a familiar message: we must do more work for the same remuneration or face a drop in income.
How much longer can we go on like this? The dispensing process is now more time-consuming than ever, what with declaration checks, receipt forms as large as Sunday newspapers and now extra record-keeping for extemporaneous dispensing and "specials ". This without even considering increased professional responsibility as the complexity of modern therapy increases inexorably. We are also now being expected to take on new roles for derisory rates of pay. The future does not look bright as the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee is powerless and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society cannot (or will not ) help.To be blunt. we are facing economic ruin.
If we are not going to lie down and surrender we must take action very quickly and perhaps the National Pharmaceutical Association can help us to carry out what I am about to propose. We must make full use of our greatest assets, namely, our wide knowledge, our experience as health advisers and our position in the high street.
As the National Health Service Executive is not prepared to pay a reasonable rate for our expertise, we must think the unthinkable and prepare to disentangle ourselves from the NHS. As a first step we can and must start to charge the public for our advice, which up to now has always been free. (By the way this would be VAT exempt!) I do not pretend that this would be easy, but look at what the banks have managed to achieve over the years, introducing charges for countless services which were previously free. Why should we give of our time and expertise for nothing any more? No other profession is prepared to do that. Maybe the public will value us more highly when this does happen. As for the mechanics, that is where the NPA could help us.
The public may not like it, but in the long run it is for their own good. Those pharmacists who provide good advice will benefit most as the public beat a path to their door. Pharmacists will be encouraged to become better educated as this will be seen to lead more directly to enhanced income.
It is true that many people will forsake our help now that it is not free and will turn up in their general practitioners' waiting rooms (assuming that GP visits remain free). The GPs will sneeze and the Treasury will catch a cold. Then maybe, just maybe, the Government will begin to view us in a different light.
I. Abrahams London NW11