The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7501 p556
10 May 2008

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Pharmacy staff do not respect drug misusers

A significant number of drug misuse service users feel that pharmacy staff do not respect them, according to findings released by the Healthcare Commission and the National Treatment Agency this week.

The findings, from the second of three annual reviews to assess the performance of 149 local drug partnerships in England, reveal that 30 per cent of local drug partnerships scored “weak” on the question of whether service users felt respected by pharmacy staff.

“This was largely because partnerships have made insufficient progress in providing training for pharmacy support staff (as opposed to pharmacists) who have the most contact with service users,” the report says. It adds that there had been more progress in training pharmacists.

The review also reveals that there is a national shortfall in the provision of out-of-hours needle exchange. However, the range of harm reduction information and advice provided by pharmacy needle exchanges was wide, with 58 per cent of partnerships scoring “excellent” on this question.