The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7234 p169
1 February 2003

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A "must-have" text for pharmacists at all stages of their careers

'Patient care in community practice: a handbook of non-medicinal healthcare', 2nd edition, edited by Robin J. Harman. Pp xiv+283. Price £24.95. London: Pharmaceutical Press; 2002. ISBN 0 85369 450 8

To adapt the well-known advertising phrase, this unique book reaches the parts of pharmacy practice that other textbooks do not: it is the only book published in the United Kingdom that deals with the many non-medicinal therapies for which community pharmacists supply products and advice, most of them as part of their basic National Health Service contract. These include stoma therapy, management of incontinence, trusses, support hosiery, oxygen therapy, wound management products, dietary products and inhalation therapy. Other services increasingly provided in patients' homes rather than in hospitals, and in which pharmacists are often involved are also covered, including enteral and parenteral nutrition and renal dialysis. Each chapter provides a full account of the therapy, giving the background to medical conditions, information about the products and equipment used, any problems associated with the condition or use of products, plus advice for pharmacists to pass on to patients.

This second edition, updates that originally published in 1989 and written entirely by Dr Harman. All chapters are now authored by specialists in the field but many, apart from updating, seem to be more or less identical to the text of the first edition. This does not matter, however, as the original material was difficult to improve upon.

This book is a "must have" for pharmacists at all stages in their careers and deserves to sit alongside the other essential texts on the community pharmacy bookshelf.

Alan Nathan