For any pharmacist, patient safety should be a top priority. But what are the modern-day pressures and challenges affecting the provision of care?
C+D asked readers as part of the Counter View 25 survey, and responses covered issues from weight loss jabs to relationships with GPs.
A recurring theme among readers was that patient safety is impacted by low staffing levels.
One respondent told C+D that “things are checked as well as they can be, but the workload is way too much for staffing levels” - and that it “feels like an error is inevitable”.
Read more: A cash cow that’s caused harm? Your thoughts on weight loss jabs
“It all comes down to staff levels,” another reader shared. “As a locum there was definitely a lot of concern for patient safety due to low staffing levels and lack of pharmacists.”
And a third reader said that while “standard operating procedures, policies and IT systems” work well to ensure patient safety, “inadequate staffing means speed is a priority and that impacts safety”.
“IT systems that give warnings for interactions, etcetera, are only of use if there’s time to read each message,” they added. “Things do get missed when working like a fast food chain employee.”
Increased pressure
Readers also expressed how the growing demand for services offered at community pharmacies, coupled with staffing issues, increases pressure on pharmacists - and, in turn, impacts the care they can provide.
One respondent said that “increased demand and pressure on the pharmacist to provide services, without the staff support, is putting patients at risk”.
Read more: ‘Race to the bottom’: Is pharmacy’s future sustainable?
Another warned that “patient safety is at serious risk with the bombardment of service expectations alongside core dispensing services”.
The “incentive for hitting certain figures for services” was mentioned by another respondent as a source of pressure - and they stressed that “this can lead to the unnecessary supply of medication to patients, as well as unnecessary worry”.
“Too many services”
Pharmacies experiencing problems with GPs was raised by more than one reader as an issue.
One reader complained about “not enough trained staff, too many services to deliver with little support in terms of remuneration, and challenging GP relationships”.
Another cited problems with patients accessing medication, including “GP surgeries not signing the prescriptions”, as well as some products being “out of stock, which is common”.
Read more: Online pharmacies: Convenience at the expense of safety?
Artificial intelligence was mentioned in one response, which said there is “too much reliance on AI checking services, which causes complacency”.
“The management of high-risk medicines and patients have declined. Standards dropped during Covid and have never picked up again,” they added.
Read more: Medical cannabis: Is the pharmacy sector ready to roll?
And, perhaps unsurprisingly, concerns about the provision of weight loss treatments also cropped up.
“I think there are well-founded concerns regarding private weight loss services,” one respondent said. “A number of service providers incentivise transactions even at the expense of patient safety.”
“Even well-run weight management services are too easily abusable, because they are disjointed, which enables patients to register at multiple providers and obtain limitless quantities of medication,” they warned.
