Pharmacists are more concerned about long working hours and a lack of breaks following the Elizabeth Lee case, a support charity has told C+D.

Pharmacist Support had noticed an “underlying current of fear of making an error” since the former locum was last month given a suspended prison sentence after a dispensing error, said charity manager David Qualtar.

He said: “There’s certainly been a feeling that people are more aware of the dangers of mis-dispensing.”

Almost half of calls to Pharmacist Support’s stress helpline in the past year were from pharmacists working at large multiples, nearly a quarter at small chains and 15 per cent at independents. Mr Qualtar said: “There does seem to be an issue with the large multiples, and maybe that’s increasing targets without increasing resources.”

The charity (formerly The Benevolent Fund of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society) had also recently seen an increase in the number of young pharmacists
calling the Listening Friends helpline – over 50 per cent of calls were now from the under-30s.  JR