The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has urged the government to tackle employer pressure to conduct MURs, after a fitness-to-practise hearing revealed "inappropriate" management tactics at the Co-operative Pharmacy.

The PDA said pressure to meet MUR targets was jeopardising pharmacists' professionalism and patient service in a letter to the government's chief pharmaceutical officer Keith Ridge last week (July 23).

The letter was prompted by a fitness-to-practise hearing in May, when the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) ruled that a pharmacist and PDA member had been placed under "inappropriate" pressure to conduct MURs at the Co-operative Pharmacy.

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	The GPhC dismissed claims that the pharmacist had deliberately falsified MUR records to meet targets and said any inaccuracies were likely to be down to "a systems failure in a busy branch where the manager was under stress".

The fitness-to-practise committee accused the pharmacist's regional manager of concentrating on profit. The approach could have compromised patient safety and showed a "lack of understanding of the clinical importance of MURs", it said.

The Co-operative Pharmacy said it had "learned lessons from the case" and reviewed its procedures since the incident three years ago.

But the PDA told the government that the case exposed a "worrying" approach to MUR targets in the industry. "The case demonstrates perfectly the way in which some large organisations, in particular, treat MURs as little more than an income opportunity," PDA chair Mark Koziol argued. "The patient safety interest is seen as an irrelevance."

He also stressed that opportunities allowing pharmacists to apply their professional judgement for the benefit of patients "were being increasingly curtailed by employer pressure."

He urged Dr Ridge to ensure the issues were "not simply swept under the carpet" – stressing that the Francis report in March made it particularly important to address deficiencies in professionalism.

Dr Ridge's office said it had received the letter and was working on a response.

The Co-operative Pharmacy said it had clear guidelines to ensure MURs were only conducted to improve patient care and it "actively encouraged" employees to share any difficulties they had with their line manager.

The multiple had an independent employee assistance phone line in place and high satisfaction scores in its annual employee survey, it added.  

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