Sainsbury's. I don't blame them anymore than I would blame a cat for shitting in my garden. It doesn't know any better. But how the hell can Steve Churton defend this abomination? Even now, at the 11th hour, the society still turns its back on members. But why would the society side with Sainsbury's on this issue? Is it any coincidence that many supermarkets have pledged membership to the PLB?...Why else would the society defend this ridiculous contraption? Make no mistake, these machines compromise patient safety. They are worlds apart from the dispensary robots which SUPPORT the dispensing process. But you can never eliminate the human element of dispensing. The mistake is to blindly assume that you can. Someone has to fill these vending machines, they will be programmed by humans and a doctor will still write the prescription. Let's not forget that machines go wrong too. Pharmacists are charged with the responsibility of being the final barrier between patients and errors. A machine is no substitute. We all know this. Look at interactions. Pharmacy Manager can remember far more interactions than I can. But it doesn't have a clue which ones are significant. The same with doses. What if a drug is prescribed marginally outside the recommended range for clinical reasons? What will the machine do? Will it phone the prescriber? Will it check with the patient? And how will it respond to the patient that would like white simvastatin tablets? Or the elderly lady that prefers co-codamol capsules even though tablets have been prescribed? How will it react to the anxious patient collecting her calcium tablets? Can it empathise with the father taking antidepressants to cope with the loss of a relative? And will it make idle chat to the lonely old lady who has no-one else? We know the answers to these questions all to well.

I'm curious. Who are these modest pharmacists who take such pride in their work but wish to remain anonymous? Such work deserves to be handsomely rewarded. Thirty pieces is the going rate I hear...

If the society won't intervene than we should take matters into our own hands. Refusing to work under such conditions would be a good starting point..

Ah the brave new world I predicted 10 years ago to my friends has finally dawned and it is potentially going to end mass community employment if we print fine words and take no action.

This is a public relations exercise and nothing more. However patients want speed, the mantra being a fast pharmacy is a good one.

The NPA did a great PR job of Ask your Pharrmacist. Are we changing that to Ask your robot ? Pharmacists may feel unsafe but technicians are too.

Like I said, there will be negative consequences if pharmacists in the future have little personal contact.

Yes GP consortia would love this kind of setup and any thing that does not pay...leave it to someone else.

It might potentially take the dispensing strain (with workload up 67% and pay heading downwards) but we won't necessarily be better off with this unless some one is funding us to do professional services.

If we don't sell ourselves and the fact we are physically at the pharmacy rather than in a remote location pressing buttons, we have no future.

Mike, you can have all the patient interaction in the world, but it won't help if the wrong tablets are in the wrong box.

this is a huge PR exercise on behalf of Sainsburys to increase it's foot fall!
I imagine the local press have been going bananas over this story with the sainsbury well oiled PR machine.
Have they parted with "their hard earned cash" to install these machines?
if it works then it isn't the multiples we have worry about, the DoH might be very interested in this cost saving measure

This move by Sainbury's acts as a stark warning that if not acted upon swiftly could be used as an excuse by GP-led consortia to employ minimal pharmacy services and opt for robotic vending machines to simply serve up prescriptions on demand.

We NEED a united body who is STRONG enough stand up for Pharmacy as a profession! Simple. When the GMC make a stand over a certain subject on behalf of Doctors, they listen and all stand united, same with the GDC for dentists, but it seems if a pharmacy body trys this, some larger multiples will just opt out to 'lookbetter' in the publics' eyes, and use this a a potential as PR gambit to increase profits due to other pharmacies not competing (whatever it may be) hence the 'stand' collapses...

A current example where we really need representation is with the government plan to scrap PCTs and use GP-led consortia - who is going to push the importance, at this crucial time, that Pharmacists can offer a huge potential saving to the NHS; if I'm not wrong the current level of medicine wastage by patients alone is £10 billion (due to over-ordering etc and not including hospitilsation costs!).

Pharmacy will see itself slowly falling lower and lower in the NHS pecking order unless we have a body who stands up for us with what it can offer and we stand UNITED as a profession.

If there was a machine whereby you could put in your symptoms and a prescription could be generated (EVEN if it were a simple diagnosis and simply in prototype stage) I wonder how long it would take the GMC to throw the gauntlet down and squash this before it even began...

As NEERAJ SALWAN correctly commented, if our representing bodies pulled their fingers out and stood strong in doing something i.e pulling out ridiculous articles before hitting the public such as last year in the Daily Mail who wrote "Can you Trust your Pharmacist" after asking counterstaff OTC questions, and these proposed dispensing machines, we'd maybe stand hope in the future...

I hope to have another 40 years in this profession and will not stand by and watch it fall just because we cannot have a strong voice to stand up when needed....

I think it is interesting that the pharmacists commenting are talking about having endless interruptions while dispensing and that we would be better off sometimes selling chickens. I have not yet seen these machines and don't work for Sainsbury's but I have worked for many years grinding through endless repeat prescriptions. The mundane part of the job is simply making sure the right tablet is in the right box - yet this would take up so much of my time, that the patient interaction which is our strength, was often rushed so that prescriptions to be checked didn't keep stacking up. If a vending machine can take this part of the job away, freeing time for the work for which pharmacists are best suited, then they are to be welcomed. It is a new way of looking at things, but if done well could allow us to do the real job of making sure people use medicines to their best advantage.

Good to see there is fire in the belly of some pharmacist's on here i just wish there was more !! but the truth is probably that since they are so stressed and rushed in the day job that at the end of the day they just want to spend some quality time doing things they enjoy then thinking how crap the day job is most of the time !

I feel after 27th september the cat will be among the pigeon's and we wil see if the new body will stand on its own two feet ,reading other sites i see they are already offering a free two months maybe the surveys they have done already about membership is not looking to good,smacks of desperation and the mutiples are committing to the first year just to see what happen's about supervision if it goes in their favour !! and i see that comment's like its "just not about remote supervision" do not make me happy about the result of the consultation but i that will be the end of pharmacy !!

I just wish we would promote ourselves as the expert's on medicince's and leave all the bloody rest to the doctor's and nurse's instead trying do everything for a pittance and not doing it very well! Does any pharmacist ask themselves why we provide a repeat rx service involving the patient's ringing us to order repeat medication and not the doctor's surgeries its simple! their is NO money in it for the Doctor's, it is time consuming and nuisance with the phone ringing all the time and the constant interuptions due to staff shortages its dangerous and can lead to dispensing error's so the Doctor's think let's fob it off to pharmacy they will do it and for free! so we can do
something more profitable !

Anyway rant over for another day, i did only log in to write that i see Mr Gilder uses customer's and not patients' as always think of them and also since they can deposit samples, i know what kind of sample i would like deposit with Sainsbury's !

Im training monkeys up to start dispensing, this maybe the way forward. Monkeys can replace GPs and Nurses too and save the NHS loads of cash!!! I have made all this up, but feel this is the way the supermarkets treat our profession. Everyone knows they want the pharmacist out of the pharmacy set up, cause we are to much of an expense, so they would rather replace us with vending machines, robots, remote sueprvision etc. They generally get their own way because they line the pockets of the political parties- after all who was the 100 hours pharmacy ruling passed for. It certainly wasnt for the independents. I am sick of the dumbing down of pharmacy all of which gets put down under the heading of 'innovation' Yeah it is good to progress ones profession but seriously vending machines- what a load of crap. Why have our professional bodies not intervened and stopped this from happening- will it take a serious adverse reaction or death to put a nail in the coffin of vending machines- i suspect so. Checking technician's be aware- maybe these machines will replace you, pharmacists wont be made redundant due to our new role as we will be acting as second rate doctors in our little cubicle consultation rooms waiting for a sexual harassment case to put up against us by a female who is looking for some spare cash and of course the disciplinary committee of the RPSGB will take her side and put the accused life on hold for over 2 years under an interim order cause they don't have the man power to deal with their case load. Apologies i digress!
Will someone have the balls and say it- Supermarket pharmacy cheapens pharmacy no matter how you try and dress it up. As a colleague who works in Asda pharmacy once told me- if Asda think it would be more profitable to sell chickens in the space allocated to their in house pharmacy they would rather sell the chickens!!

I totally blame our professional bodies- they need to get their fingers out their backsides and put a stop to this NOW. Or maybe some of Lord Sainsburies money ( and soon probably Tesco, Asda etc ) is finding its way to their coffers too. Money talks i suppose. My fellow pharmacists out their- lets just chuck it and go and stack shelves or sell chickens for a living.

I hope Sainsbury's and the RPSGB are reading these comments. Our pharmacy had a customer walk out because when dispensing Warfarin we asked to look at their anti-coag record, the customers comment "Sainsbury's are not so awkward" How does the RPSGB / MHRA think machines can undertake a clinical check to the same level as a human being.

Wow, Another machine, This machines gonna take over the world one day..... NOT. What about controlled drug script and dispensing and private , vet scripts. would it be possible for machines to give emergency supply? if yes, Then there will be longer queues on this machines then check-outs.

soon there will be vending machines everywhere,post offices,banks,train st,garages,pubs,etc.get your rx from these machines- then look 4 a pharmacist ( if counter assist or disp tech not available)for help if needed.pharmacists will be taught how to mend theses machines at universities !!!!

Also how demeaning is must be to the all sainsbury pharmacy managers' to think that Justin King and david gilder think of them glorified vending machines and where is the RPSGB and the plb view on this !!!

As a profession Pharmacy and some companies involved in pharmacy have always seem to shoot themselves in the foot and in this case they have blown both feet off !! with both barrells.

As a pharmacist i am always surprised at the apathy among the profession since agreeding fully with the comment's below i feel their should be more of a outcry at this unwelcomed
service it does the profession no credit it again it gives the impression to the public that all we do is take boxes off shelves!!

And it is the devaluing of the profession that really tick's me off ! because Sainsbury's does not care about bringing pharmacy to it's lowest level ie how to get your prescription quick as possible ! ie like fast food but pharmacy is not Mcdonald's and like all pharmacist's who are proud to be a pharmacist should be really mad that pharmacy is reduced to this level.Also as far i am aware Mr Gilder is not a pharmacist and from what i have seen from Sainsbury's all they use pharmacy for the footfall and to progess pharmacy as a profession , can anyone tell me when was the last time any of the supermarket's did anything innovative !!unlike other companies such as Boot's and co-op who at aleast try and promote the profession in a good light ,i do not always agreed with them but they are not bad as the supermarket who only cherrypick services !!
Finally i hope this fail's and just wonder is service available when the pharmacy is shut or only available when a RP is signed in.

This is nothing more than a PR exercise for Sainsbury. Few questions spring to mind:
1) Does this really mean improved access for patients - NO
2) Will this promote the safe and effective use of medicines - NO
3) In years to come will there be 1000s of patients queing up at these 'Pharmacy ATMS' nationwide? - NO
4)Will this take the mickey out of the pharmacy profession - YES
5)Will Sainsbury really benefit from this in the long-term : I DONT THINK SO

As Nick says Sainsburys are a supermarket...and you can only expect such things from them.Wonder what Tescos is thinking at this moment of time?

Perhaps these supermarket pharmacies should take advice from the RSPGBG which advocates that 'The best and safest pharmaceutical service is provided when there is opportunity for direct contact between patient and pharmacist'..

Presumably, if these machines are available to customers when the in-store pharmacy is closed then the Responsible Pharmacist in the event of an error will be Sainsbury's superintendent pharmacist.

I agree with R Frost. Also surely promoting this as an "express" service further devalues the pharmacists professional input and encourages patients midset of it's only sticking a label on a box. Shame on you Sainsburys, but then you are only really a supermarket at heart and can we really expect you to know any better!

Now I'm no luddite - but isn't this breaking a fundamental need to have our patients acess the unique pharmacists knowldge set. At a time when we should be selling this skill set very hard. Patients don't know when they need advice - unknown unknowns as it were. I presume that this will be rolled out to ALL supermarkets and not just those with NHS contracts?