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In-store pharmacies

Professional, not commercial

From Mr A. Rahman, MRPharmS

I would like to express my concerns regarding in-store pharmacies and their detrimental influence on the pharmacy profession. Simply to allocate square footage between the dairy and bakery sections, acquire a National Health Service contract and then control the section like it was a fruit and vegetable department is not how to operate a pharmacy. I share the frustrations of fellow pharmacists working in such environments who commonly complain of high stress levels, dispensing errors, staffing problems and a lack of time to talk to and counsel patients. I have worked in such pharmacies where, before noon, some 400 or more items have been dispensed — a physical feat by any standard. In in-store pharmacies, the pharmacist can be seen as a departmental manager who is accountable daily to the store manager for items dispensed and sales achievements.

It is the policy of supermarkets to reduce and streamline over-the-counter and pharmacy medicine categories, thereby pushing more profitable and fast-moving lines and making more money. Of course, the customer loses out, having less choice, and the pharmacist has a smaller product range to recommend.

What our grocer colleagues fail to recognise is that pharmacy is a service to the public and that pharmacists are health care professionals, like doctors and dentists. The commercialism of the supermarkets is eroding the profession. It is high time that they accepted pharmacy for what it is and not just as a commercial exploit.

A. Rahman
Brierley Hill, West Midlands

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