LPC lambasts NHS Choices for ignoring pharmacy

Go to: http://www.nhs.uk/Pages/HomePage.aspx

You will find that the "Health Services Near You" tab mentions GPs, Hospitals, and Dentists. But it's not easy to find a pharmacy on the front page... you have to make a couple of more clicks before you can choose to find a pharmacy.

I totally agree with Hemant. It is about time our efforts and services we offer are properly advertised for the interest of our patients and the wider public that may need to use these services.
For the nhs choices website to be more relevant to the public, it must give full coverage to all leading healthcare areas of which Pharmacy is in the forefront.

Chris Okworu [Towe Hamlet lpc]

Hemant, if you get through to the NHS and get a satisfactory outcome in relation to your grievance then I'll give you a tenner!

What did you expect! Lets wine and dine the great and good of the NHS and stroke the DOH's arm and tell them pharmacy is the solution to their woes. Lobbying by LPC's, PSNC et al is and has always been sub standard. A good leadership results in a bilateral respect. Our leadership bodies have up till now been woeful. These are the seeds the likes of you have sewn.

Absolutely Rajive, crying over spilt milk! The whole pharmacy fiasco is due to a lack of strong leaders!

The NHS Choices has made a change which is acceptable to me following the email I sent. In your shoes, I would with good wishes and honour send a tenner to a children's charity.

I fully and without reservation accept responsibility for the work I have done and still retain the energy, commitment and enthusiasm to the pharmacy profession and more importantly to the public whose trust we must retain.

Perhaps, and it is only a hope, we will see some demonstration of acceptance of responsibility and commitment to do work on a voluntary basis from some of the younger pharmacists.

Being a spectator is easy. Blaming without a sense of proportion or accuracy is also easy. Like spectators at a football match somehow, and often after the events, the spectators know how the game should have been played! And, often they have not even been near a football pitch to play the game, yet they are somehow experts.

If there is a proposal to improve things I have not seen it. I am willing to support any sensible proposal for change which demonstrates knowledge about the subject, skill at interpreting the events, having a network that can influence events, a sense of responsibility and a commitment to use the energy more effectively and for a common good.

I do not claim to be a leader now but it is said that the leadership is only as strong as the membership. That includes you and me. What characteristics should we expect from the future leaders that are missing from the current leadership? What does strong leaders mean to you as that may vary from person to person.

Are you willing to consider standing up on behalf of the profession and lead as a strong leader? What outcomes can we expect and by when?

Accountability and criticism is part and parcel of being a representative, Hemant. Your analogy to a football match is brilliant yet your inference is a subjective one. I would go further and say, that yes, fans don't understand the intricacies of the technical side, but they do understand the strategies and yes, hindsight is 20-20 vision, but you as a "footballer" are put up in that position and you must graciously accept criticism, not slam it in a protectionist manner.

I would never question your commitment, however, I may very well question your tactics, and indeed, I have. I do not intimate wanting to be a leader or a representative but surely you should encourage vibrancy from within our core profession, this leads to a more democratic voice, not a reserve of a few big wigs.

I am grateful that this time has induced plenty of debate from amongst young and older members of our profession. We need this and we need less apathy, that was prevalent in your era and it was this apathy that betrayed all forms accountability or governance.

As for your point about donating the £10, I will.