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Letters to the Editor
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Work pressures
PDA policy on staffing and working time
From Mr J. Murphy, MRPharmS
There has been a considerable debate regarding pharmacists’ workload
in these columns and in last week’s Broad
spectrum (PJ, 19 August,
p218). The Pharmacists Defence Association has long been running a campaign
for there to be a requirement that employers be transparent about what
pharmacists can expect to be an acceptable level of staff resources and
skill mix in the pharmacy. I am encouraged by the recent interest in
this important area.
The PDA is aware that it is difficult to lay down industry-wide standards
because of the variation in size of over-the-counter business, dispensing
throughput, prescription acquisition and supply methods, and the facilities
in any given pharmacy. The experience and ability of those involved may
further complicate the issue.
However, it should not present problems for the superintendent pharmacist
(or responsible pharmacist) to make it clear to employees, locums, financial
managers and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s inspectorate, the
number and skill mix of staff required to guarantee patient safety. If
employers are prepared to stand by the fact that staff levels are as
safe as they can be, then they should have nothing to fear and much to
gain.
The Code of Ethics is currently under review. Now is an ideal time for
the Society and its members to make a stand on the expectation that pharmacy
owners and companies should be transparent in their staffing models and
plans to meet workload demands.
The Fitness to Practise Directorate, if need be, could hold them to account
for falling short of their own standards and would have a benchmark from
which they could judge whether those standards are acceptable.
Following research and consultation with our members, the PDA has produced
a policy on staffing levels and working times which it urges the Code
of Ethics working group to consider during its deliberations. This is
available on the website
www.the-pda.org
John Murphy
Director,
Pharmacists Defence Association
Picture not accurate
From Mr M. Stein, MRPharmS
 I must take issue with the picture that appeared on the front cover of
last week’s PJ (19
August 2006) depicting “Pharmacists
under pressure”.
You always have your finger on the button and get pictures which illustrate
articles with such accuracy. How could you be so wrong with this one?
Who manages to sit down?
Now, if you showed a pharmacist collapsing while on his feet …
Malcolm Stein
Hatfield, Hertfordshire |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal