The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7382 p13
7 January 2006

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· Influenza pandemic
· Preregistration training
· COX-2s
· CAM
· Controlled drugs
· Medicines use reviews
· Pharmacy practice

Letters to the Editor

Pharmacy practice

Common sense!

From Mr G. D. Batey, MRPharmS

I have just realised how lucky we pharmacists are. For years I have worried about what to do (i) if a person with disabilities is unable to remove tablets from a blister pack, (ii) if the same person cannot pour from a bottle into a 5ml spoon, (iii) if he or she cannot read normal labels and (iv) if he or she cannot understand why they need to take medicines.

But now all is made clear by the article (PJ, 17 December 2005, p747 PDF (70K)) explaining how to “make adjustments associated with dispensing services”. We must all be grateful to the authors, who give the answers to the above difficulties: (i) remove the tablets, (ii) supply a 20ml measuring cup, (iii) use larger fonts and (iv) conduct a medicine review to explore what the patient does not understand (or, in layman’s terms — talk to the patient about it).

I qualified some 55 years ago and so cannot set my mind to the difficult problems that confront modern pharmacy. But I cannot help thinking that my wife (who was a teacher of young children) would have considered herself a failure if her class could not have coped with problems such as these without help from an official journal.

G. D. Batey
Wylam, Northumberland

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