The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7241 p399-400
22 March 2003

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Letters to the Editor

Supermarket pharmacy

Collective action might ensure independents' survival

From Mr R. B. A. Johns, MRPharmS

I was all set to chide John Tapster (PJ, 8 March, p332) for undertaking locum work in supermarket pharmacies when I read on and found I had instead to congratulate him for refusing to do so in future and to thank him for giving me an idea. I have to admit to a total lack of experience of locum work since I retired eight years ago and of supermarket pharmacy from either side of the counter but, if the latter is as unattractive a working environment as he suggests, my idea might just be workable.

Most community pharmacists of my generation will know that any attempt to retaliate against persistent Government ill treatment by threatening "withdrawal of labour" is doomed to failure, not only because of our professional ethics and reluctance to put patients at risk but also because such action would be greeted with exultation on the part of the multiples, which would happily vacuum up the prescriptions thus relinquished. Those same considerations also militated against any possibility of unanimity.

However, what if every locum followed Mr Tapster's example and declined, for an agreed period of perhaps a month, any request for his or her services at any supermarket? Would it not put those organisations in difficulties vis-à-vis their dispensing contracts, to the point where, by a delightful irony, they would have to turn away the business which they had in effect filched from the independents?

I would hope that the short-term effect on an individual locum's income would not be too unacceptable and would not prevent united action such as was impossible in the circumstances outlined above. Collective action would of course have to be co-ordinated, perhaps by a locum agency enlightened enough to recognise that its long-term interests as well as those of its clients would be best served by the survival of the independents rather than by their extinction.

Richard Johns
Boston, Lincolnshire

Minor relocation is the only way to integrate into a supermarket

From Mr A. J Boyle, MRPharmS

In response to the letter from Geoff Laidlaw (PJ, 15 March, p365) I believe that I can write with some authority in that I am a former co-owner of an instore supermarket pharmacy and currently own an independent pharmacy.

Individual pharmacists will always take the utmost care to provide service to their patients in whatever environment they practise but it is difficult to take full medication histories for all new patients seen in a supermarket. The only way to integrate a pharmacy into a supermarket satisfactorily is by means of a minor relocation where the same community is served. The planned pharmaceutical service is in all patients' interests, not just the articulate and mobile, such as Mr Laidlaw.

What will happen to our patients when medicines management becomes the norm in community pharmacy and the main footfall with respect to pharmacy is that of pharmacists leaving to fulfil their domiciliary duties? Will the large corporate machines be quite as interested in pharmacy then or will they leave it to the decimated remnants that remain?

Andrew J. Boyle
Shelf Pharmacy,
Halifax, West Yorkshire

Is there a hidden agenda?

From Ms M. L. Perkins, MRPharmS

I share Peter McCree's puzzlement (PJ, 8 March, p333) at Tesco's application to reduce its contracted opening hours, and the timing, so soon after the Office of Fair Trading report.

Paul Pilkington's reply strikes me as rather disingenuous. He states that Tesco is not applying to reduce the opening hours of its pharmacies, merely to clarify its contractual hours. I feel like a victim of sleight of hand. If primary care trusts accept his premise that actual opening hours are not the same as contractual hours, then any future reduction in opening hours will not constitute a reduction in contractual hours. I understood that the contracted opening hours of a pharmacy were the same as its customary opening hours; is this no longer the case?

Here in Skipton, Tesco has recently reduced its actual opening hours by one hour in the evenings. I have also received notification that, from the end of this month, it will no longer be opening on Sundays. This means that the community pharmacies in Skipton will have to return to the rota system made obsolete when Tesco first opened. Looking into the future, should the OFT report be accepted, who will step in to restore services when community pharmacies have been put out of business by supermarkets?

Paul Pilkington's letter raises other questions. If Tesco is not applying to reduce its hours, then what is the purpose of the application? If it has a problem with pharmacist cover, will the pharmacy choose to close at 5.30pm, ie, "its contractual closing time"? As pharmacist to the general practitioner practices in Skipton, I need to be able to advise patients with confidence when Tesco pharmacy is open. I wonder if there is a hidden agenda: are there plans to bid to provide out-of-hours services as part of local pharmaceutical services?

Lesley Perkins
Fisher Medical Centre & Dyneley House Surgery,
Skipton, North Yorkshire

Is Tesco being economical with the truth?

From Mr M. T. Bland, MRPharmS

I was intrigued by the response from Paul Pilkington of Tesco in response to the letter from Peter McCree on an application by Tesco to reduce its contracted opening hours (PJ, 8 March, p333).

Mr Pilkington is being rather economical with the truth when he states that the company is only clarifying its contractual hours and that it intends still to operate extended hours. Tesco has already reduced its extended hours in many stores and the shortening of contract hours will enable it to close temporarily during evenings and weekends at a whim without informing the appropriate primary care trust in the event of staff or pharmacist shortages.

This will be without any regard to the patients who attend and will cause difficulties in many areas where evening rotas have been abandoned as being unnecessary due to the late openers. I am fully in favour of extended hours being available to the public but not on an unplanned and sporadic basis.

Mike Bland
Eastleigh, Hampshire

Not all the same

From Mr G. Peris-Jones, MRPharmS

I read with disbelief the assumption made by John Tapster (PJ, 8 March, p332) that all supermarket pharmacies are the same. Having worked in community pharmacy for over 20 years, as a proprietor and also in small and large national multiples, I can assure him that I give the same standard of service now as I always have.

Mr Tapster's comment about letting down the profession makes my blood boil. I now work in a smart, new, clean and, to use his words, "clinically sterile" pharmacy. We have just taken delivery of a state of the art computer system and I work with a good team of highly trained assistants including two recently qualified NVQ level 3 dispensers. I now have the opportunity to undertake continuing professional development as well as being involved in new initiatives.

Our relationship with the local doctors is second to none and our extended hours service, especially our Sunday opening, is greatly appreciated.

As for the "middle of the night, sick child scenario", it beggars belief that Mr Tapster is advocating yet another free service. How many other so-called professionals would offer this service without payment? Is he suggesting that our hospital colleagues should not receive any out-of-hours emergency payment and should provide the service free from the goodness of their hearts?

I think Mr Tapster should wake up to the new age, stop complaining and come to work at our pharmacy. He will soon realise that it is not the pharmacy premises but the people providing the service that really counts.

Gwyn Peris-Jones
Caernarfon, Gwynedd

Not only pharmacy is threatened

From Ms S. C. Lynch, MRPharmS

It seems to me that supermarkets have been usurping the place of small local businesses for years and the range of products supplied by them continues to expand relentlessly. How often does this have a devastating effect on local communities? Yet how many of us continue to flock to them?

It seems a pity that it is only when our own livelihoods are threatened that we become so vociferous. Let us not consider only local pharmacies, but also the impact on local DIY stores, greengrocers and butchers.

Susanne Lynch
London E2

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