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Letters to the Editor
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Media representation
Showing the “face” of pharmacy to the public
From Mr J. E. Balmford, MRPharmS
Further to the Broad spectrum article (PJ, 27.August, p 250) something
must be done to show the “face” of pharmacy to the public.
For several years, the assistant secretary to the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society, Bruce Rhodes, was excellent in his performance on television.
I often saw him on BBC Breakfast, putting forward the position of pharmacy.
He carried out his task with aplomb.
After his retirement early in 1990, Roger Odd appeared from time to time,
but after he left the Society nobody has regularly presented our profession
to the public.
I would have thought that Beverley Parkin could have found a pharmacist
with the aptitude to perform this important role. I say important role,
because most of the public have no idea what a pharmacist does, both
in the retail sector and in hospital, not forgetting the part played
by our profession in research.
Such exposure would also help with the recruitment of outstanding students
to our profession, by showing what an exciting and challenging profession
pharmacy is.
We used to do it in the past, and I wonder why it has not been done in
recent years.
John E. Balmford
Past President
Royal Pharmaceutical Society
Raising our public profile
From Mr R. S. Kaye, MRPharmS
I had to write in and say how much I agreed with Martin Palmer’s
Broad spectrum article (PJ, 27 August 2005). I have been making these
exact points about pharmacy input in factual and fictional TV, to students
and collegues for several years.
I would now like to ask if a Royal Pharmaceutical Society representative
could reply here, to tell us what they plan to do to raise our public
profile in the media. Surely next time there is a medication-related
story in the news, it would just take a phone call from the Society to
tell the BBC they have a pharmaceuticals expert they can consult, and
we would start seeing pharmacists on TV news programmes.
I am more than happy to make any TV appearances!
Richard Kaye
Loughton,
Essex
Informing the public about new pharmacy services
From Mr P. Jones, MRPharmS
Martin Palmer (PJ, 27 August, p250) highlights the important, but difficult,
issue of making sure
that the public are aware of the changing nature
and scope of pharmaceutical services available to them, following implementation
of the new pharmacy contract. How do we inform and, at the same time,
raise public expectation of pharmaceutical services among the general
public? As someone indicated to me recently, “If you are trying
to persuade the public to use community pharmacies as the first port
of call for NHS primary care services, wouldn’t it be a good idea
to tell them?”
Good positive media coverage is vital — Martin Palmer refers to
TV soaps, and public health medicine specialists tell us that the best
way to get a public health message over to the public is to write it
into a “soap”. GPs also indicate that the day after a key
character in a soap is diagnosed with a serious medical condition, their
surgeries are full of patients with identical symptoms!
But perhaps we should put our own house in order first so that the public
have an idea as to what pharmacies and pharmacists stand for? If you
walk down any high street you might wonder whether a pharmacy is a department
store, a shop selling cosmetics and baby clothes, a place where you can
have your films developed, or perhaps a place where you can buy medicines
and have an NHS prescription dispensed.
Is it evident that it is a facility to seek expert advice on health matters,
including medicines, free of charge, and without a prior appointment?
Some pharmacies display a green cross, but others display a variety of
corporate logos. In Scotland most pharmacies now display a corporate
logo indicating they are part of the NHS, and are premises where pharmaceutical
care is provided. The fact that these pharmacies are part of the NHS
came as a surprise to many members of the public. So how about a move
towards a corporate professional identity to assist the public: the clients
we serve?
All pharmacists should be aware of the need to address the problems highlighted
by Mr Palmer. A joint initiative between the local branch in Edinburgh
and the health board’s statutory professional advisory committee
on pharmacy has recently prepared a public relations and communications
strategy. This is now being implemented to try and ensure that the public,
other health care professionals, staff in social work departments and
politicians, both locally and nationally, are fully aware of the exciting
developments and changes that are beginning to take place.
Pharmacists are and will continue to provide the public with an ever
increasing range of professional services. There is no point in hiding
one’s light under a bushel!
Peter Jones
Edinburgh
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BEVERLEY PARKIN, public affairs and communications director at the
Royal Pharmaceutical Society, responds:
These correspondents are right
to underline
the value of having a presence in the media: it helps build the Society’s
influence as an authoritative, credible organisation and promote the
reputation of the profession in all its roles. That is why the Society
invests in
a proactive media programme as a key component of its communications
strategy.
The public relations team works to promote the Council’s policies
and the profession’s viewpoint to the public through the news media.
An important part of this is supporting the Society’s local pharmacist
PR officers, who make an important contribution to the profession’s
profile in the regional media.
Over the years, the profession has benefited greatly from the skills
of some first-rate media communicators, including Bruce Rhodes, Roger
Odd
and Professor Tony Moffat. The PR team continues to work with excellent
spokespeople on the Society’s Council, staff, in the branches and
in key stakeholder groups to raise the Society’s media profile.
Print and broadcast media are becoming more demanding, with a proliferation
of media outlets to service: our PR resources are focused on supporting
Council policy and providing an authoritative position on the Society’s
priority issues as well as running some five national public health
campaigns a year.
Every month, the Society issues some 22 news releases; pharmacy penetrates
the national press about eight times; pharmacists are included in
national and local broadcasts on average six times. In August 2005,
pharmacy’s
media presence included: · David Pruce, director of practice and quality improvement, interviewed
on BBC Radio 4 about buying medicines from the internet;
· John Gentle, member of the Council, interviewed on Radio Shropshire”about
buying medicines from the internet;
· David Pruce quoted in Yours magazine about non-steroidal anti-inflammatory
drugs for a piece about ibuprofen and risk of heart attack;
· Sue Kilby, head of practice, quoted on BBC
News Online in a news
article about the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s
call for over-the-counter painkillers to contain stronger warnings about
risk;
· a news feature on BBC News Online — “The
rise and rise of the pharmacist”, for which our PR team provided background;
· a reference to the Society and the British National Formulary
included in an article in The Guardian about a multivitamin compound
for autistic children.
In addition, a typical week’s media work will involve preparing
statements and news items for the pharmacy and health-related press;
handling requests for interviews with pharmacists and requests for background
information and comment on a wide range of medicines and health-related
issues. Currently, the team is gearing up to promote the British Pharmaceutical
Conference, which last year secured over 50 appearances in the national
press and broadcast media.
For a roundup of PR activity over the last month, members can visit
the Society’s website.
Your first correspondent makes an important point about the need to
recruit high-calibre students to the profession: the Society’s
work in promoting pharmacy as a career seeks to do just that. Over the
summer, the Society issued a new suite of careers materials and launched
a dedicated website www.pharmacycareers.org.uk aimed at 14- to 16-year-old
students. The PR team is currently working with The Independent newspaper
on an eight-page supplement on pharmacy as a career. This will be the
fourth such supplement promoting the profession, which is distributed
to over 550,000 readers with the newspaper and The Pharmaceutical
Journal.
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Pharmaceutical Journal