The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7425 p545
4 November 2006

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· Supermarket pharmacy
· Pfizer products (2)
· Professional image
· Paracetamol
· Varicella
· Psychotropic medicines
· Dispensing

Letters to the Editor

Professional image

Standards are slipping

From Mr S. Maddern, RegPharmTech

I could not agree more with Alexander Florence (PJ, 28 October, p516). For years I have struggled in community pharmacy to fulfil simple dispensing tasks due to customer queries such as “which baby monitor is the best?”, “should this smoothie be this thick?”, “do you have this baby outfit in any other sizes?”.

I have seen pharmacy floor plans moved and rearranged to accommodate baby photographers (screaming children and flashing lights really help the dispensing process) and Christmas toy displays, not to mention the removal of key pharmacy items like patient leaflets and chairs for patients awaiting their medicines.

I have had pharmacists arrive for work in jeans and even attempt to straighten their hair in the dispensary. There is a time and a place for wearing jeans and hair straightening, and the dispensary is not it.

I shudder when I pass chemists’ windows covered in poster after poster with tacky window displays that most certainly do not reflect the professional standards of pharmacy, or what pharmacy should be.

So come on! Our professional standards are slipping. Let us get them back up.

Steve Maddern
Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire

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