| · Personal control
· Cholesterol testing
· Charitable donations
· Returned medicines
· Dispensing
· The profession
· The Society
· The Charter
· Retention fee
Letters to the Editor
|
Cholesterol testing
Free testing undermines the profession
From Mr M. Patel, MRPharmS
Having recently talked to a colleague who moved to the US a couple of
years ago, I was surprised to hear how well respected pharmacy is over
there compared with Britain. In a recent national poll pharmacists were
named the third most respected profession (behind doctors and judges).
My colleague explained that it was partly because patients had to pay
for their medicines.
I am not declaring that we scrap the NHS, or make all patients pay for
their medicines. However, it seems apparent to me that by offering free
cholesterol testing we are undermining the credibility of our own profession.
Is it not true that whenever a free service is offered (ie, one that
is not remunerated by either the patient or the government), people will
generally respect that service or the people providing it less? Can you
imagine lawyers and accountants offering the general public free services?
I am also sure if patients were forced to pay a small fee on these tests,
they would be more likely to pay attention to their results, and try
and do something about any high readings.
The company I work for has recently introduced free cholesterol testing
and people have been piling through the doors in an attempt to find out
their number. However, little has been done to provide us with extra
staff to carry out these tests. Furthermore, I have been told by managers
and team managers that they do not have the budget to finance another
member of staff (most likely because of the free services we are offering).
Has no one realised that this is a service the Government may have paid
us for in the new contract? Along with many of my colleagues, I am finding
it increasingly difficult to carry out dozens of cholesterol tests daily,
on top of checking hundreds of prescriptions and counselling patients.
How much more can we be feasibly expected to do?
Pharmacy has always been a silent profession, but the time has come to
unite and boycott performing free cholesterol tests. As pharmacists,
we do not stand up for ourselves or the profession. It is time we did.
Only then will we gain the respect and pay we deserve.
Mitul Patel
Luton, Bedfordshire
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal