|
Concordance
Law and Ethics
Out of hours
Ask about medicines
Ramadan
Needle exchange
Specials
Ramipril
Medication errors
Preregistration exam
The Charter
The Profession
Letters to the Editor
|
Needle exchange
Is business more important than public health?
From Mr T. Maguire
I am saddened and concerned by the recent events in Colwyn Bay, Wales,
that have resulted in pharmacy contractors withdrawing
a valuable needle exchange scheme,
and I condemn, unreservedly, those that perpetrated the cowardly hate
mail campaign. This is intolerable behaviour in a modern society and
reflects, I am sure, only a minority view.
Working where I do, in a deprived area of Belfast, I have had my fair
share of problems, so I do empathise with those pharmacists involved.
However, I feel that the decision to withdraw the service was wrong and
may damage their pharmacy services locally, and perhaps even nationally,
for many years to come.
Yes, pharmacy is a business dependent on customers for survival and any
threat to our businesses must be considered carefully. But pharmacy is
also a profession and in this context we must provide the services that
are needed in our communities and be advocates for those services, even
in the face of opposition. Withdrawing services just because we fear
a negative impact on our businesses may prove to be inordinately short-sighted.
I doubt whether primary care organisations in Wales, which will be left
to deal with the problem of supplying clean syringes, will look kindly
on these latter pharmacy contractors when additional services are being
commissioned in the future. Of course, this has happened before, when
a multiple pharmacy group in Manchester withdrew
its emergency hormonal contraception service, just because it encountered some negative press
(PJ, 27 July 2002, p124). That, too, had its fall out.
I think that contractors would be well advised to consider carefully
what business they are in. This is a crucial time for pharmacy especially
when we are about to embark on negotiations for a new contract. If we
want to survive, then we must make sure that we are participating in
the public health business and, yes, sometimes this business is not particularly
rosy.
Terry Maguire
Vice-Chairman,
PharmacyHealthLink
|
* PDF files on PJ Online require Acrobat
Reader 4 or later.