The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 275 No 7357 p46
9 July 2005

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· Drug administration
· National boards
· Controlled drugs
· The Society
· Supermarket pharmacy (2)
· Birdsgrove House (2)
· New pharmacy contract (2)
· Prescribing
· Education

Letters to the Editor

Supermarket pharmacy

Exception to condemnation

From Mrs S. Coyle, MRPharmS

I really must take exception to Anne Mishon’s blanket condemnation (PJ, 2 July, p19) of supermarket pharmacies. I work as an occasional locum in a supermarket pharmacy and I find that this complements my work as a practice pharmacist very well. I have found that the staff are all well-trained and professional, the pharmacy well designed, clean, tidy, well-stocked and well-run. I am able to spend time talking to customers, in private if necessary, about a whole variety of problems and issues.

Last Saturday, for example, I had a long chat with a middle-aged man about reducing his cardiovascular risk (I sold him nothing). I also identified a possible medication-related photosensitivity reaction on a woman taking antihypertensives and I gave advice to an emergency doctor about antiemetics for a terminally ill patient who had just received a course of radiotherapy. None of these people perceived my service as a low-price-driven, poor-quality one.

I suggest that any pharmacy is as professional as its manager and staff, and this particular supermarket pharmacy (of course, I cannot speak for all the others, but neither should Anne Mishon) is as good as any pharmacy I have worked in. I would add that it is highly regarded locally by patients and customers and other health professionals.

It is, in my opinion, foolish to write off a whole sector of our profession. There are good and bad examples of practice in every sector.

Susan Coyle
Annan, Dumfries and Galloway

Same quality and standards

From Mrs D. Laidlaw, MRPharmS

I have been on the Register for 19 years and am in my seventh year working in supermarket pharmacy. I would like to respond to Anne Mishon (PJ, 2 July, p19). I would like to know in which branch of the profession Mrs Mishon works to give her such a strange idea of what the public perception is. My opinion is that the public are much more astute than she gives them credit for. I believe that several factors, in no particular order, determine where someone shops or how they access pharmacy services. These are price, quality, availability, service and access. My ever increasing weekly customer numbers show that they realise they are getting the same quality product, excellent service and a low price at a time that is convenient to their working lives. The branded bottle of cough syrup purchased from ourselves comes from the same source as every other bottle of cough syrup. We sell at a low margin and our profit comes from high volume sales not by overcharging the customer. I am proud to be employed by the largest retailer in the world yet my days are not troubled with the cut and thrust world of the latest lipstick shades, hair colours and nappy sizes that some of my high street pharmacy colleagues have to deal with. My staff have access to superb training facilities and they all have an annual appraisal and a live personal development plan, things that are taken care of by others in the business, leaving me to concentrate on providing pharmacy services. As for there being “no other jobs”, there is seldom a month when I am not approached by another company or recruitment agency with news of exciting pharmacist positions. They all get the same polite reply — “No thank you, I am happy where I am.”

Denise Laidlaw
Newcastle upon Tyne

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