The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7197 p646-648
11 May 2002

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Letters to the Editor

The Profession

Inferiority complex reinforced by Society

From Mr C. Cheung

Over the past year, pharmacy students have submitted a number of letters to The Journal that have generally been about the lack of pay and the undervalued status of the profession. In spite of some legitimate grievances, we students find the prospect of being pharmacists an exciting challenge.

The need to clear student debts and the higher salary offered by community pharmacy are often cited as reasons for choosing that sector for preregistration training. However, hospital pharmacy is often perceived as the "sexy" option, which in the words of Paul Williams (PJ, 27 April, p572), allows the "greater use of clinical knowledge." So the implication is, if it were not for the lower pay, more students would have chosen hospital placements instead of the "pill-counting" role of community pharmacy. I believe community pharmacists would be offended by this viewpoint.

Local populations cherish community pharmacies simply for the reason that they provide excellent services for improving health. Many people, including myself, find the sterile surroundings of hospitals to be forbidding, and the shop environment of high street pharmacies makes a comfortable contrast. Furthermore, I do not believe the public regard community pharmacists as "glorified shopkeepers", but more as approachable scientists dedicated to their well-being. If Mr Williams believes that his four years of study cannot be put to good use within this setting, then he fails to understand the impact that community pharmacists have on the everyday lives of people.

Pharmacy students, however, are under the illusion that neither the public nor health care professionals value the services of the pharmacy profession. I cannot accept this point of view. The 340 million annual visits to pharmacies must mean the profession is doing something right. In addition, doctors are always stating that pharmacists "save their skins" on a daily basis. Nevertheless, I understand the frustrations of my peers when we compare ourselves to doctors and nurses, whose professional bodies appear to be more organised and vocal in gaining the opinions of policy makers. The apparent lack of gumption displayed by our beloved Royal Pharmaceutical Society does nothing but reinforce the notion of an inferiority complex among students.

What is of great excitement is the expanding role of the pharmacist within the new NHS — something that all pharmacy students find mouth-watering.

Chi Cheung
Final Year Pharmacy Student,
University of London

Lead, do not follow

From Mr P. J. Francis, MRPharmS

Pharmacy always licks the Government hand that attempts to strangle it. That is due to pessimism. Pharmacy will succeed if it has the confidence to tell the Government what to do and how much to pay, rather than waiting to be told by it. That will result from optimism. Lead. Do not follow. Win!

Paul Francis
Brisbane, Australia

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