Half full or half empty?
In 50 years' time, will 2002 be thought to have been the beginning
of the end of pharmacy, or the end of the beginning? Pharmacists are
no different from other men and women: for some, their cup is half empty;
for others, it is half full.
For those pharmacists who are by nature pessimists, it is the end of
pharmacy as they know it. For a start, and most recently, how can the
Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee be trusted to strike a
good deal with the Government over the new contract if it cannot protect
today's income? And England's chief pharmacist seems to be threatening
to take away any significant role for pharmacists in the dispensing process
and expects pharmacists to hand over, willingly, to technicians. Moreover,
the Royal Pharmaceutical Society seems to be opening its doors to all-comers:
more lay members on the Council, plus registration of technicians. And
if that is not enough to deal with, the threat of the Office of Fair
Trading investigation into control of entry is still looming and the
whole business of generics is still unresolved. How can pharmacy possibly
survive?
Optimistic pharmacists, who see their cup as half full, have a different
take on events. They long to see the back of the current contract. The
problem with the old contract is that it does not recognise the clinics
they have established for post-myocardial infarction patients at their
local surgery. It does not recognise the support they give diabetes patients
and those who take warfarin. It does not recognise the bone density screening
scheme they have established or the repeat dispensing scheme that is
successfully up and running. These pharmacists long to be free of the
dispensary. Oh, brave new world!
Of course, these two groups are caricatures: most pharmacists are pessimistic
about some aspects of their professional lives and optimistic about others.
Nevertheless, hospital pharmacists, those who work in industry, academia
and alongside general practitioners, and other members of the primary
care team cannot quite understand what all the fuss in the community
is about. They know there is a wider world outside pharmacy; those who
engage in that other world know that pharmacists are often highly respected
but that respect is not earned by navel contemplation.
So whether you think it is the beginning of the end, or vice versa,
seasons greetings to you all — whatever your outlook! Back to Top
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