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Letters to the Editor
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Employee pharmacists
Need for more control over working environments
From Mr M. Koziol, MRPharmS
The remarks by Lloydspharmacy superintendent Andy Murdock which so clearly
upset John Blake (PJ, 11 September, p347) were made in response to an
error which caused harm to a patient, and he explained that the Lloyds
pharmacists in the Bristol area would now be undergoing some retraining.
Crucially, the sentiments expressed by Mr Blake are symptomatic of a
much wider problem in community pharmacy, which is that pharmacists at
the coal face are often working in situations which they feel are unacceptable.
Inevitably, they are driven to continue in the belief that no matter
what, they must continue to provide a service to the public as best they
can, even in difficult circumstances. Consequently, when an error occurs,
it is generally they who are held responsible by either the patient,
the employer, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and, in the worst cases,
even the Crown Prosecution Service.
The Pharmacists Defence Association is concerned by the number of errors
caused by inadequate pharmacy environments. I can confirm that our comprehensive
research into this area, which has involved the input of more than 2,000
pharmacists through surveys, questionnaires and focus groups, shows that
Mr Blake’s views are widely held.
The challenge in the findings is that, if pharmacists are to take responsibility,
then they must have more control over their working environment. There
are ways in which this could be done, but it will take a huge culture
shift at many levels within the profession, as currently it is the employers
who enjoy that control. Moreover, improvement measures will cost employers
money as more
trained staff may be needed and safer practices may need to be adopted.
The work of the PDA will be comprehensively debated at the PDA national
conference early next year and we hope that we can help pharmacists become
more professionally assertive by examining ways in which they can begin
to take control of their working environments. Importantly, following
more consultation with pharmacists, employer organisations and the Society
we will be hoping to launch an important initiative along the lines of
Mr Blake’s proposed “new charter” for employee pharmacists.
In the meantime, any pharmacists who would like to express their views
confidentially are encouraged to contact us via www.the-pda.org
Mark Koziol
Director
The Pharmacists’ Defence Association
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal