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Letters to the Editor
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Community pharmacy
A lack of appreciation of what really happens
From Mr D. H. Bishop, MRPharmS
Malcolm Almond’s article on the plight
of locums (PJ, 9 April, 420)
has certainly summed up how I and, I am sure, many other freelance pharmacists
feel at present. In particular I find the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s
attitude to continuing professional development unhelpful and the rush
towards the use of checking technicians and reliance on standard operating
procedures unsettling.
I am not alone in feeling that the “final check” now seems
to be viewed almost with contempt by many of the prime movers in the current
contract. However, as Mr Almond says, over the years it has provided a
reliable and, I think, cost-effective method of delivering drugs to patients.
I would be reluctant to entrust my future to someone being paid little
more than a counter assistant, despite the years of experience and training
he or she might have had. I am not in anyway decrying the ability of many
of the highly capable people I work with but I have yet to come across
a situation where any of them are paid at a level commensurate with the
responsibility they might have to assume. This is often not the fault of
the proprietor — the money just is not there for effective remuneration.
I also agree wholeheartedly with Mr Almond’s remarks on CPD. For
years I have carried out my continuing education mainly through the Chemist & Druggist Update scheme and it has suited me well — I am now confused as to
how I incorporate that into CPD. As to reflection, etc, and planning. I
am now 58 years old and all I wish to do is continue as a locum and make
sure I keep up to date so I can safely dispense to and give advice to patients.
I have no great game plan. Why should I have? And why should I be made
to feel inadequate because I do not want to jump through hoops devised,
it seems, by a group of people who do not live in the world of community
pharmacy that I and many others inhabit.
I do not disagree with the concept of continuing education but the CPD
agenda seems to me to be ill thought out and not helpful. I would like
to embrace it but, for instance, whenever I ask how much time should be
devoted to CPD I get meaningless answers. It is time the people setting
the rules realised that to me, and to many other freelance locums and proprietors,
time is money and opportunity. If it is thought that around 40 hours a
year is acceptable let us know so we can factor it into our work (and possibly
charges).
Finally I totally agree with Mr Almond’s remarks about the Centre
for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education. There now seems to be a major emphasis
on workshops, most of which are at unsuitable times and in any case rely
on access to situations and support which locums just do not have. Distance
learning suits me and many others of my age and outlook so why reduce the
output at this time?
I suspect that, in the end, a large number of pharmacists will be reduced
to almost inventing situations and experience in order to justify an entry
in their CPD logs that fits the mind set of the people who will examine
them. There is a lot of stress in community pharmacy at the moment and
a large part of it is, I think, caused by a lack of appreciation of what
really happens there by people who should know better.
Derek Bishop
Saxmundham, Suffolk |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal