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

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Letters to the Editor

The Council

Driving nails into community pharmacy's coffin

From Mr S. P. Bullock, MRPharmS

It was my pleasure this week to attend, as an observer, the committee meetings of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. It was indeed a most interesting and informative day and I strongly urge any pharmacist, given the opportunity, to attend.

I also strongly recommend any pharmacist — but particularly those who work in smaller community pharmacies — if they have not already done so, to examine carefully the material put out by the candidates in the Council elections and vote.

Why? Because from observing at first hand what most of us only see through the eyes of the pharmaceutical press, it is my perception that community pharmacists, particularly independents and those who work for larger organisations but in less "busy" locations, have few friends on the current Council.

I was particularly dismayed by the position taken by some Council members on the question of open display of pharmacy medicines. It is as plain as a pikestaff to most of us that if the present constraints are removed it is only a matter of time — whatever noises are made about "supervision" — before the current range of restricted products come to be treated by the public as any other commodity and the "stack 'em high" mentality prevails. What then is to become of the new wave of POM-to-P switches envisaged? Shall we stack the chloramphenicol eye-drops next to the eye shadows?

The 12-month so called pilots, which were allowed last year, are coming to an end and it would seem that the Society is now incapable of stopping them and allowing a chance for evaluation because the Code of Ethics' demand for medicines to be inaccessible to the public cannot be enshrined in law. Does the same then not apply to the rest of the Code? And where does it leave the inspectorate, who have to turn a blind eye to what is at present a breach of the rules that the rest of us are expected to follow? What data have been collected? How robust are they? We are told that no customers or patients have lodged any complaints. But give a monkey free access to bananas — it is not going to say no, is it?

Some members of Council are apparently afraid that the Society will be left looking foolish if it is challenged by the large companies and loses. Does that then mean that large companies can dictate Society policy?

So much of what is happening today seems to favour the larger pharmacy. It would appear that the smaller practice has no champion other than the poor beleaguered pharmacist running it.

But when Mrs Average has had her medicine delivered from Rapi-Script and bought her cut price antibiotics from the large display in Mega-Chem, will she then be able to pop down to see Mr Whitecoat for a chat about her daughter's headlice? Of course not, because it will be too late. He will not be there. But these are the pharmacies where medicines management can be properly delivered, because the pharmacist knows his clients and where, for the most part a bond of mutual trust exists. Do we really want to lose them?

It seems to me that our Society has in recent years sat back and watched as nail after nail was driven into community pharmacy's coffin. I now begin to wonder if, all the time, some members of its Council have not been handing the carpenter the nails.

Steve Bullock
Barton under Needwood, Staffordshire

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