The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7488 p150-151
9 February 2008

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• Clarke Inquiry (2)
• Minor ailment scheme
• EHC
• WCPPE (2)
• Dispensing
• Community pharmacy
• PSNC
• Drug addiction
• The Society (2)

Letters to the Editor

Community pharmacy

We try to help patients in spite of the hurdles

From Mr U. G. Patel, MRPharmS

In response to Anna Smith’s letter regarding the poor service a patient might have received (PJ, 26 January 2008, p81), I would like to point out how this could have happened.

A patient needing an item which has a manufacturing problem rushes into a pharmacy and demands to know if the item is in stock since he has already been to a few pharmacies and found the medicine to be unavailable.

Before the pharmacist can explain about the manufacturing delay or how he or she can telephone the prescriber and request an alternative preparation, the patient walks out saying he will try somewhere else.

Even if the pharmacist is able to convince the patient, the patient wants what the doctor prescribes and thinks that the pharmacy is substituting a lesser drug.

Of course this depends on whether the pharmacist can even contact the prescriber, who may have long left the surgery and no longer be contactable.

The telephone call Mrs Smith suggests would take over 15 minutes and this would be in middle of dealing with other waiting patients. And then time would be needed to explain to the prescriber that a new prescription is needed for the alternative suggestion.

In spite of all these hurdles we still try to help the patient if he or she is willing to tolerate the long wait.

Umesh Patel
Hastings, East Sussex

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