The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7337 p200
19 February 2005

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

Pharmacy workload puts patients at risk

Community pharmacists believe that excessive workloads are putting patient safety at risk, the results of a new survey suggest.

The Pharmacists’ Defence Association interviewed more than 1,600 community pharmacists and found that 89 per cent believed their standard of work was affected by workload. Of these, 84 per cent believed that patient safety had been put at risk.

The survey also revealed that 67 per cent of community pharmacists thought that working for extended periods without breaks had compromised patient safety. In addition, 81 per cent believed they had worked in situations where patient safety had been put at risk by the quality or availability of support staff.