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Letters to the Editor
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Community pharmacy
Pharmacists are not trained for and do not want public health jobs
From Mr J. B. Paige, MRPharmS
Several of your recent correspondents have suggested that the pharmacist
members of the new Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society will pursue
sectional interests because they are community pharmacists. This is an
unfounded allegation on the successful candidates and one which I find
deeply insulting.
What really makes this Council different from its predecessors is that
it is made up of a balance of lay members and ordinary working pharmacists
without any nominees of employer organisations.
Most pharmacists have always put the care of their clients before their
own interests. This has allowed them to be exploited by the accountants,
administrators and politicians who control most pharmacy employers in
all sectors. Even now, Jim Smith, chief pharmacist for England, is trying
to get pharmacists to take on tasks that no one else in the NHS wants,
without offering realistic funding for the extra work involved.
As one who voted for the Save Our Society candidates, I hope to see the
Council press for pharmacists to be allowed to use the education and
experience they have gained to bring the greatest possible benefit to
the patients they serve.
New duties should relate to the manufacture, distribution, supply, use
and safety of medicines. Public health education, diagnostic testing,
etc, are not jobs we want or are trained to do.
Barrie Paige
Guernsey,
Channel Islands
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal