An episode of Channel 4's Undercover Boss featuring Rowlands Pharmacy has received a mixed reaction from the sector.

Some pharmacists praised the programme for highlighting pharmacy issues in the mainstream media, while others criticised it for not featuring a single pharmacist.

The hour-long programme, which aired on Channel 4 on Tuesday (August 5), featured Rowlands managing director Kenny Black posing as a worker in his own company. Mr Black was shocked to find 15 per cent of drugs out of stock in a branch in Clacton, Essex, depot workers in Portsmouth having to pick stock from the shelves at a rate of 120 items an hour and porcelain decorations sold in a Rowlands pharmacy in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire.

Pharmacy Voice chief executive Rob Darracott said focusing a TV programme on pharmacy was a "first" for the sector and showed the public the effort staff put in to get medicines to patients despite stock shortages.

"It's a practical demonstration of some of those issues, albeit in a slightly novel concept. If it prompts somebody to go out and find out a little bit more about pharmacy then it will have served a very useful purpose," he told C+D.

A locum pharmacist, posting as Chris Locum on the C+D website, said the public might begin to appreciate there was more to pharmacy that just "picking a pack off the shelf".

"At least pharmacy had exposure - not like government proposals where we have [had] little or no mention down the years," he said.

But Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire chief executive Robbie Turner said he was disappointed the show failed to mention pharmacy's emerging role in promoting patient wellbeing.

"I don't think it told us anything we didn't know - staff are key, don't sell tat, stock shortages are a real problem," he told C+D on Twitter.

Pharmacy technician Patricia Munro said the issues facing pharmacy "were not highlighted at all" by the programme.

"Mr Black would be better [off] visiting a pharmacy and working in it for a week to see the true picture," she posted on the C+D website.

Before the programme aired, Mr Black said it had been a chance to put "pharmacy in the spotlight" and help the public understand its role within the health sector. 

Undercover Boss: the Twitter response

@CandDSamuel @RowlandsTweets as a busy pharmacy manager myself, I found the show both entertaining and perversely reassuring!

@matt_isom @CandDSamuel agree it highlights this important issue.There are so few generic manufacturers now that limits fall back supply

@CandDSamuel not a single pharmacist or store manager interviewed.Boss more concerned with waiting times than patient care

@CandDSamuel @RowlandsTweets where are branch or area managers? Boss was shocked that his shops sell porcelain figures? Sorry don't buy that

	Did Undercover Boss highlight enough of the challenges you face daily?