labelled, let the assistants write the persons name on it and wave it in front of my face before
handing out.
I am not aware of any near misses, because I insisted on doing things properly even
if people had to wait, but that created a very adverse relationship with the business manager and
my employers.
I was also in trouble with them because I refused to substitute generics that were
not flagged as equivalent.
In most community pharmacy roles, the workload at peak times in
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unmanageable in terms of being able to provide the counselling and associated advice, with a line
up of people waiting for scripts.
In terms of a proprietor’s adherence to the pharmacists’ code of ethics, have you ever
witnessed a near miss, or an event of concern?
In several community pharmacy positions, I have been subjected to adverse wrath from owners
for declining to supply S3's when they were inappropriate, or insisting patients visit the doctor.
In
some cases patients complained directly to the owners.
Being told I was losing business,
upsetting customers, and driving them to competitors or to online suppliers
for things like
questioning multiple supplies of ventolin in short spaces of time when not on preventers, multiple
supplies of OTC codeine,
declining to supply repeats for excessive quantities of
drugs with
potential for abuse, when pts continually presented them too early according to prescribed
dosage and maximum doses.
It was apparent the owners were driven by the desire for profit/
business and were not interested in the inappropriateness of the medicine use and potential harm
for the patient.
One employer suggested I should look for another job, and moved to replace me
before I had even resigned.
Is the Community Pharmacy Agreement the best way to organise medicine distribution and
remuneration? What could replace it?
No - because it is driven by the Pharmacy Guild which only represents owners of pharmacies.
All
avenues of efficient distribution of medicines needs to be considered - eg. some hospitals could
provide better outreach services by supplying some of the very specialised medicines with expert
counselling and patient support by specialised pharmacists.
How do you think Medication Reviews could be extended so that more patients can access this
service?
In terms of the professional services, medication reviews etc, I do not believe they should be
remunerated under the Community Pharmacy agreement, they should be funded separately as
they have nothing to do with the supply of medicines.
All other health professionals have a fee
structure for consultations - so should pharmacists undertaking professional services not
associated with supply of medicines.
Medication Reviews should be considered an essential
service.
Almost every patient I see in my current role in a private hospital has a number of
medication management issues.
However I am only capable of seeing a small number of patients,
as I have a lot of other administrative duties - policy & procedure, medication safety, nurse
education etc.
