The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7448 p458
21 April 2007

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Letters to the Editor

Locum pharmacy

Why should locums not sign SOPs?

From Mr P. V. Bremner, MRPharmS

I received an advertisement recently that alerted me to the issue of locum pharmacists compromising their self-employment status if they sign standard operating procedures. It quoted a letter to The Journal from Brian Threlfall, a pharmacist and commissioner of income tax (PJ, 3 February, p132).

Do general commissioners of income tax know what an SOP is for? As I understand it, it is a tool that locums can use to familiarise themselves with different working environments they come to work in. Our SOPs, for example, contain information such as where to find the Controlled Drugs register, what time to have prescriptions ready for delivery, who is responsible for taking out the rubbish, cut-off times for ordering from wholesalers, and other such things necessary for the day-to-day running of a pharmacy.

If a pharmacy wants to ensure that a locum had read and understood the pharmacy’s SOPs, then why should it not get its locums to sign them? If locums are not going to be able to sign SOPs, which are essentially a set of documents written to help them provide a standardised service to their client’s customers, then why bother having them at all?

Peter Bremner
Buxton, Derbyshire

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