Pharmacists must be in pharmacies
Representatives of local pharmaceutical committees have said that a pharmacist should always be present in a community pharmacy when it is open.
They confirmed this by a show of hands at their annual meeting on 1 March
after rejecting a motion from Birmingham LPC that called for pharmacists
to have greater discretion over their involvement in dispensing.
Proposing the motion, John Carr said that pharmacists should be able
to delegate tasks to relevant staff and could display signs showing the
hours when they would be available.
Opposing, Graham Phillips (Hertfordshire) said that patients did not
want to visit pharmacies only to find that there was no pharmacist there.
Before the motion was discussed, Barbara Parsons, head of pharmacy practice
for
the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, said that the PSNC
agreed with it because pharmacists already had discretion over their
involvement in dispensing. Managers should manage workload according
to the skill-mix of their staff. The PSNC has no view one way or the
other on the use of checking technicians or any need for a final check
by pharmacists before prescriptions are handed out.
A second motion, proposed by Fiona Castle of Gloucestershire LPC, urged
the PSNC to ensure that there is no dilution of the present legal and
professional requirements regarding pharmacists’ involvement in
the day-to-day operating of a community pharmacy business. She suggested
that the name of the pharmacist responsible each day should be recorded
along with details of any standard operating procedures and tasks delegated.
A debate on the motion failed to reach a consensus and the motion was
withdrawn.
Noel Dixon, Durham LPC, said: “I believe one pharmacist should
be responsible for one pharmacy but I do not necessarily agree that the
pharmacist should always be on the premises.” Preventing a pharmacist
from leaving the premises could restrict opportunities to engage in new
services, he said.
However, Ash Soni, Lambeth Southwark and Lewisham LPC, stressed that
one of pharmacy’s unique selling points is the access the public
has to a pharmacist. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal