Pharmacy advice in the Which? spotlight again
More private advice areas like these are needed within pharmacies,
says Which? |
Advice given in community pharmacies is unsatisfactory in four out of 10 cases, the Consumers' Association says, having sent its undercover researchers into pharmacies for the fourth time in 10 years.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s President, Gill Hawksworth,
said at the Council meeting this week that the Society has asked Which? for details of the pharmacies visited. “We should aim to help the
pharmacists involved, review what happened and identify how they can
improve their practice,” she said. “It is important not to
turn this into a witch hunt.” However, a spokesman for Which? told
The Journal that while further details of the findings would be provided
to the Society, it was not going to release individual pharmacy names “because
the research is
indicative of a broader problem”.
What Which? asked about
St John’s wort Pharmacy staff were
expected to spot the potential interaction with the contraceptive
pill.
Emergency contraception Responses were judged on privacy and
information.
Diarrhoea If asked, researchers revealed that they had recently
visited Malaysia. They should have been told to see a GP.
Low-dose aspirin Levels of risk and basis for self-treatment
were measured. |
Previous Which? reports on pharmacy advice and sales
The February 2004 issue of Which? magazine
is the fourth in 10 years to carry critical reports about advice
given in community
pharmacies. In June 1994 (PJ, 4 June 1994, p767) and January
1996 (PJ, 6 January 1996, p8), Consumers’ Association researchers
asked by name for medicines such as Tagamet (cimetidine) and
Canesten (clotrimazole) that had recently been switched from
prescription only to pharmacy status. Both reports said that
not enough advice was given at the time of sale and that potential
interactions were not picked up. The association called for a
halt to further POM-to-P switches. The April 1999 report (PJ,
3 April 1999, p454) used similar scenarios but in this case it
was pharmacy assistants who were more strongly criticised for
the advice they gave than pharmacists.
The traveller’s diarrhoea scenario has been used in all
of the reports and it has generally been the one in which pharmacists
and their staff performed worst. Terry Maguire, vice-chairman
of PharmacyHealthLink, told The Journal that if the actors carrying
out the scenarios were not showing signs of have been abroad
recently, and were not known to pharmacy staff, then prompts
to ask about overseas travel might be missed. |
The issue attracted widespread media interest and the Society’s
director of practice and quality improvement, David Pruce, was interviewed
for numerous national television and radio stations in response to the
article. Dr Hawksworth also gave interviews for BBC radio programmes.
For the February issue of Which? magazine, a team of 12 researchers visited
84 pharmacies in England, Scotland and Wales during October last year.
These included branches of national multiples, supermarket pharmacies
and independents. Four scenarios were acted out (see Panel) and the responses
measured against model answers given by a panel of two academics and
one community pharmacist.
Overall, 35 of the visits were judged to have resulted in unsatisfactory
advice being given, 19 satisfactory and 30 good. Multiple pharmacies
tended to have similar levels of performance, each having just under
half of their visits rated as good. However, of 19 visits to independents,
only three were rated as good and 12 were unsatisfactory.
Which? calls the results worrying. It says that too many pharmacists
were tucked away in the dispensary, dealing with prescriptions, although
it notes that changes in the new pharmacy contract may improve this.
Concerns about lack of privacy within pharmacies when advice was being
given were also raised, particularly for sensitive subjects such as emergency
hormonal contraception.
Four online pharmacies (Academy Health, Allcures, Boots and Pharmacy2u)
are also criticised in the report for failing to provide additional information. “It’s
clear that websites aren’t a proper substitute for a face-to-face
consultation,” Which? says.
Comment, p142
Pharmacists need more support and better
incentives to improve public health advice, p143 |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal