Pharmacists working 17 per cent harder than nine years ago

Pharmacists are defiantly working harder as workload is forever increasing. I strongly suspect that they are not being compensated for this extra work through increased remuneration or increased prescription payment; as global sum remain pretty much static.

It is not nearly 3 months ago since NMS it is precisely 8 wks and of course 73% of people didn't know what an MUR is but if you asked them if they would like a free medicines check up 9 times out of 10 they would say no my Doctor does that but they doesn't mean they have never been told how to take their meds. Of course they haven't heard of the NMS and if you asked them to come back and make an appointment to see you they think 'an appointment to see the Pharmacist you have got to be joking I am far to busy for that' but that doesn't mean that everyone prior to 01/10/11 just got given a new med and forgotten about because before we squirreled away in the consultation room trying to meet target after target we used to have a friendly relationship with our regular faces from the community and would ask Mrs X how is she getting on with her new inhaler without all this formality that just puts people off. I say scrap these ridiculous services that are just a stick with which to beat Pharmacists who are at their wits end anyway lets get back to basics and concentrate on being good at what we do rather than notching up numbers. If you want to keep the services then fine change the way they are paid for because for as long as they are paid by quantity there will continue to be poor quality services performed by Pharmacists who are being put under ridiculous pressure to meet targets, make it a flat fee for all and then maybe we can go back to giving a good quality service. I wonder how the rates of dispensensing errors that make it out to the patient has increased since the Pharmacist is under so much pressure?