The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7496 p399
5 April 2008

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• Society elections (2)
• Devolution
• Medication errors
• Children's medicines
• The new contract
• Community pharmacy
• Patient safety
• Responsible pharmacist
• CPPE
• Education
• The Society (4)
• Pharmacy in the media

Letters to the Editor

Responsible pharmacist

Are we considered knowledgeable?

From Mr K. Voutzoulidis, MRPharmS

I was interested to read Mr D. Brown’s letter about “Too many fanciful visionaries” (PJ, 19 January 2008, p51).

Despite our rigorous training, we are challenged to take over all those unnecessary tasks he speaks of, while we are still prevented from supplying certain prescription medicines that have a low, if any, potential for abuse.

If a regular customer walks in who is on, for example, long-term furosemide and who cannot obtain for whatever reason a prescription, we may not dispense. At best, we can make an emergency supply with all the considerations and implications this may have (including ethical ones, the assessment of genuine need, keeping a record, etc).

I am not trying to suggest that pharmacists should take over the role of doctors. Nor am I proposing that we should proceed to situations where we will be selling medicines lightheartedly and with no appropriate rules in place to safeguard everyone involved.

But I reckon that we are daydreaming if we are talking about CPD and giving ourselves additional and “important” roles when, after all our quality training, we are deemed incompetent to supply a POM, which the patient is already taking, without making a meal out of the situation.

The concept of repeat prescriptions and POM to P switch of certain drugs does represent a step forward, but we are still, in my humble opinion, not considered knowledgeable enough to do a relatively uncomplicated job (the prescriber having paved the way), which will inevitably simplify many situations.

This should change before we talk about anything else that has to do with the future of the profession.

Konstantinos Voutzoulidis
Patmos, Greece

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