A time for change
What do you think about self-checking?

A time for change

This issue of The Pharmaceutical Journal is the first of a new volume and the traditional time to make changes to the design and contents. After analysing the results of the readership survey distributed at the end of March the main innovation is the division of the contents into three broad sections: news, contributed material and “The Society”.

The news section, we hope, will provide busy pharmacists easy access to all the main developments in politics, clinical medicine, pharmacy practice and new products. If they read nothing else, they will still keep up to date with what is happening in pharmacy (pp3–13).

The second section starts with “Broad Spectrum” and ends with “Onlooker” and encompasses all material either contributed or commissioned: letters, continuing education, original papers, articles, and reports of meetings and conferences. This is essential reading for pharmacists wanting to know what their colleagues are thinking and doing (pp14–30).

We have also given the Society pages a permanent home after “Onlooker”. Whatever else The Journal hopes to achieve, it will always remain the main conduit between the Society and the membership, and it has been a frequently aired observation that quite a few readers are not sure what parts of The Journal originate from the Society. By clearly gathering the material under the specially designed masthead (title words) there can be no confusion (p31).

Observant readers will also notice that The Journal’s own masthead has been redesigned and that the pages should look cleaner and crisper. However, no new typefaces have been introduced, The Journal has retained all its original ingredients, it is simply that the contents have been reorganised to meet the needs of 21st century pharmacists.

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What do you think about self-checking?

Self-checking by non-pharmacists is currently not recommended. However, the Council of the Society will be deliberating a change of words to the standard operating procedures for dispensing at its August meeting. Pharmacists are invited to fill in the questionnaire on page 11 (or on PJ Online) to register whether or not the recommendation should be changed to enable pharmacy technicians, suitably trained and accredited, to self-check. The issue is much more complicated than might be suggested by such a change and does not address the wider problems associated with self-checking, be it by pharmacist or non-pharmacist. However, it may help those pharmacists who are keen to start offering broader services to patients and would like to delegate the final check.

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