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Xrayser: Where is it all heading next for pharmacy? 24/02/2010 As we await the cost of service inquiry results, and rumble along the bottom of recession, an essential skill is that business mind to identify new services and – more importantly – get paid for them.
Xrayser: The wonderful thing about hindsight 17/02/2010
Xrayser: It’s not easy being perfect 11/02/2010
We can’t afford not to pay the cost of advice 03/02/2010
Xrayser: Generic substitution, a double-edged sword 27/01/2010
Xrayser: Webinar or webinaren’t? You decide 21/01/2010
Xrayser: Despite the weather, your local pharmacy is open 13/01/2010
Xrayser: Don’t just complain: do something 12/01/2010 The festive season of ‘Goodwill to all men’ has come to its usual abrupt end, and a patient is arguing the toss because I won’t make an emergency supply. He’s tried the initial, chummy, “Can’t you lend me a few tablets..?” and we’re now onto the “Well, that other bloke who’s here on Wednesdays always lets me have a few!”. Xrayser: Up and down went the pharmacy year 16/12/2009
Xrayser: Put the SOPs in order, the inspector’s coming 09/12/2009
Xrayser: And now for the good news 25/11/2009
Xrayser: Sticking up for dispensers 04/11/2009
Xrayser: EPS chaos looms despite our warnings 29/10/2009
Xrayser: Basics first for care homes 15/10/2009
Xrayser: a breath of fresh air 30/09/2009
Xrayser: Lay council members? Don’t be paranoid! 17/09/2009
Give me some respect, not a vaccination 02/09/2009
Xrayser: Three cheers for locums 27/08/2009
Xrayser: I’m not backward at looking forward 19/08/2009
Xrayser: You just can’t find the staff! 13/08/2009
Xrayser: Trying to keep the drama out of swine flu 30/07/2009
Xrayser: Get us out of Tamiflu distribution, quick 23/07/2009
Xrayser: Even my customers are against me
Xrayser: Space - the final frontier 18/06/2009
Xrayser: Planning ahead to avoid foreign horrordays 11/06/2009
Xrayser: No more Mr Nice Guy, please 04/06/2009
Xrayser: Don’t panic Mr Mainwaring
Xrayser: Managing the information overload
Xrayser: Get me some appliance training, and quick!
Xrayser: C’mon C+D – campaign for tea breaks! 19/03/2009 "Forget strategies to tackle workplace stress, surveys and paying your locum over the odds – the future of pharmacy could lie with the humble tea break." Xrayser: Seventy six steps to becoming a pharmacist 05/03/2009 "The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has produced the definitive summary of what we should be doing during opening hours. Most non-pharmacy employees would call it a job description, and probably go on to ask how we ever managed without one." Xrayser: How can this be happening? 26/02/2009 "I just do not understand how the PCTs could agree to the Assura-GP proposal. I could pick a list of cheap drugs myself and persuade GPs to prescribe them for a decent fee. It’s not exactly rocket science" Xrayser: All loved up on Valentine’s Day 12/02/2009 " The Clarke Inquiry, TransCom, market research, membership surveys and face-to-face meetings must have produced enough moans and groans to last the new professional body for the next 168 years " Xrayser: Don't fall into the advertising rat trap 22/01/2009 "I used to enjoy a juicy piece of lightly sautéed rat in my jalfrezi, washed down with a cold pint of lager. Not any more. Pfizer’s ‘Real Danger’ ad campaign has put me off my little treat by comparing it to taking a counterfeit drug" Xrayser: Bless you, my sick patients 15/01/2009 " Customers might be making their toothbrush last a little longer, or switching to cheaper brands of toiletries, but they must have their medicine at the first sign of a runny nose or tickly throat " Xrayser: Don’t force me to be popular 08/01/2009 "I’m all in favour of patient empowerment, but unless they’ve spent 10 years training they’re not qualified to criticise a GP’s clinical skills" Xrayser: Cheer up, it's Christmas 18/12/2008 " Anyone who suggested that we would be supplying the Pill or tamsulosin OTC just 10 years ago would have been laughed out of their branch meeting. These are opportunities for clinical practice that should have us jumping for joy " Xrayser: Party time comes early 11/12/2008 The patients have started playing Christmas games early and Xrayser is looking forward to The Great Escape. Xrayser: Juggling so many balls I could join the circus 27/11/2008 We’re constantly juggling so many balls, – safety, time, workload, patient privacy – that something has to give. The largest juggling balls are time and workload, so privacy is often the one that’s sacrificed. Xrayser: Don’t blame men for wanting to boost their self esteem 20/11/2008 First it was parallel importers, now it’s men. Who will be blamed next for the trade in counterfeit medicines – women? Xrayser: Rumble in the pharmacy - Alli vs Clamelle 06/11/2008 The NPA is right to call the POM to P switch of azithromycin "an unparalleled opportunity" for the profession. I just don't think it's a great sales opportunity Xrayser: Carry on at the chemists 29/10/2008 " One is more likely to feel that uncomfortable reddening of the cheeks and a desire to be swallowed up by the earth in a community pharmacy than any other public place " Xrayser: Are we really the uncaring profession? 23/10/2008 The Department of Health has revealed that, by October 12, it had received over 2,500 responses to the pharmacy white paper, and a staggering 99.9 per cent of them were from dispensing doctors and their patients Xrayser: Mr Motivator goes missing 16/10/2008 Perhaps support is what I would like more than anything. Despite regular outpourings of warm words, pharmacists are not supported by the DH, particularly not financially Xrayser: Roll up, roll up! Drugs for sale! 09/10/2008
Xrayser: Trying to achieve the impossible
Shouldn't primary care be pharmacist-led?
Going for gold or heading for the high dive?
Something for the weekend, young man?
They tried to make me go to rehab
Happy birthday, dear NHS: where to next? 02/07/2008
Are we ethically bankrupt? 26/06/2008
I've got those burn-out blues 19/06/2008
The best of British to you, Mr Churton 12/06/2008
Who's responsible for this mess? 05/06/2008
The Rx Factor - the search is on 29/05/2008
Penguins, cigarettes and script changes 15/05/2008
Mum knows best - or does she? 08/05/2008
Joining a new society 30/04/2008
The patient whisperers 24/04/2008
Convenience, or value for money? 17/04/2008
Beware, the genie is out of the bottle 09/04/2008
The Tao of Pooh 03/04/2008
AZ's Marvellous Medicines scheme 26/03/2008
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“If you were to spend the rest of your life with your peeing condition the way it is now, how would you feel about that?” An odd question for Mrs Xrayser to ask me, especially at work…
I walked into the pharmacy this morning, and saw another sackful of returned drugs. I feel like showing our overflowing drug disposal bins to every patient who raves about the current drug shortage and saying: “Help yourself to some of the £100 million worth that goes unused.” With such anxieties, why is medicines adherence such a problem?
Eileen, our new part time counter assistant, has been with us for nearly two months. She is learning fast, enjoying herself, and has become suitably battle hardened without losing any enthusiasm.
It must be easier to order some medicines from the privacy of your own study than to confess your impotence to a smirking GP
Pharmacy is making the biggest single charitable contribution to the NHS and all it gets in return is criticism, increasing bureaucracy and pay cuts
Personally, I can't imagine anyone being so careless or stupid as to let the dog eat all their chocolate
The lady with the lamp showed skill in "leadership, evidence based healthcare and nursing transformed healthcare" but she's no threat to GPs because she's dead
"The latest missive I received from the MHRA is yet another jobsworth message for me to pass to GPs"
"Why choose pharmacy when you can opt for medicine, IT, finance or professional football?"
"If we were to wash our hands of everything that lacked clinical evidence our fronts of shop would look decidedly sparse"
"Margaret and Jean valiantly offered to sing the National Anthem to any of our xenophobic customers but I didn't like the idea of yet one more reason to stand up while trying to eat my sandwich"
"GPs have been appointed as clinical director and clinical lead for EPS. This is like putting two pharmacists in charge of a national plan for the redesign of stethoscopes"
"I discreetly usher young Charlie into the consultation room in my attempt to supply the most appropriate contraceptives. "Flavoured or coloured?" I ask"
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X Pharmacy, and many others like it, has got itself into a 'no-win' situation similar to the one we're in with monitored dosage systems
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"Just when you thought you were brushing all your concerns under the carpet, along comes a service to identify some more and 'resolve' them for you"
"It’s a measure of the importance we place on the NHS that every change or hiccup is pored over and analysed so carefully"
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GPs are better at managing these risks, partly because they're helping out a medical colleague, partly because they have better access to patient notes, and partly because they know that the GMC will support them if anything hits the fan.
"I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling absolutely exhausted by the events of the past three years"
"He could preside over either the demise of our once proud professional body or else its rebirth and phoenix-like rise from the ashes. Not an easy job"
"Whatever it is, it mustn't run late or be too far away from the pharmacy, or we won't be back in time and will risk turning into a pumpkin"
"Can Hemant Patel be as hard as Simon Cowell, and does he have the right trousers?"
"Is it really good health policy to make a pack of fags cheaper than an NHS prescription medicine?"
"Forget GPs for a moment, we could be competing with the Great British mother to provide this new service"
"There must be a pretty strong case for persuading people to put their hand in their pocket"
"Having kindly given one lady much more than her allotted three minutes to explain why she shouldn't dose her baby up with Medised, she bought some anyway"
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To be able to make use of this 'improved access' the patient must be ill on a Monday. Anybody who becomes ill on a Tuesday will either be dead or better by the following Monday evening
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"We don't need such a big incentive to get out of bed as the supermodels, but we'll be having a lie in till some pound notes are dangled in front of us"
"I've always felt that people are far too keen to pour medicines down their little one's neck. God gave us an immune system for a reason"
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AZ has recognised how powerful we can be in influencing patients' medicine-taking. And it is prepared to pay for some of that influence
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