Nightingale Pharmacy Services

Dance of the lemmings?

2010-12-14T11:47:00.000-08:00

I could be polite. But I shan't be. You have been warned.

What a bunch of utter pillocks we must look to the outside world, let alone to DoH, Commissioning GP bodies and everyone else who likes a good laugh at some inept set of individuals making a mockery of themselves in public.

Positions on comissioning bodies as a matter of right? Only for the position of Court Jester, these hard pressed people in charge of delivering healthcare under the worst financial constraints since the end of World War Two could do with a moment or two of mirth, and we're there to provide it.

In case you are at all unclear at what I refer to, click on the following link to read the full and bizarre truth about the morons we pharmacists are.

http://links.mkt2859.com/ctt?kn=44&m=36077401&r=NjU3NzMyODM4NgS2&b=0&j=ODk1NTI0MjQS1&mt=1&rt=0

If it doesn't work, e-mail me and I'll repost the thing. Unbelievable what a set of plonkers we are!

Some of us have taken it upon ourselves to report ourselved for poor performance. How noble! How gallant! How sh1t for brains f%^$£$&G stupid can we get? On second thoughts, please, NOBODY ANSWER THAT! We might regret it even more. Any volunteers for a red hot poker up the jacksie? Yes! Silly b*&^^%r pharmacists will try that. Anything for a laugh those chums of ours, I can hear them say.

What about the future? Forget it! With clowns like these, who needs water pistols? At least they aren't real guns, then we could shoot ourselves in both feet. But as usual, being so inept, we'd probably miss! Cause to report ourselves for poor performance?

How have we come to this?

Eggs on the lawn at dawn?

2010-11-23T12:48:00.000-08:00

It's a Lancashire New Years Eve/Day tradition, probably replicated elsewhere in the country. Following the excesses of New Years Eve, breakfast on the New Year Dawn is welcome to many.

It's 23rd November and if I hear one more in-store Christmas song, hymn or other ditty, I might just fail to resist the temptation to turn these items into a suppository! The television and radio obsess with unrepeatable deals (until next time) and "must-have" items for all.

We don't get this nonsense for Diwali, Ramadan or any other "faith" group celebration. I use the terms "faith group" advisedly, not to insult anyone. Christmas is a Christian festival to commemorate the birth of the Christ, if that's what you believe in. I can't quite figure out where the excesses of finance, gluttony, alcohol, spending money people don't have, on things the recipients don't want, let alone to consider the so called "entertainment" on television? Get me out of here, I've had enough already.

As the good Mr Ebeneezer Scrooge said, "Celebrate Christmas in your way, and leave me to celebrate it in mine".

So in the true spirit of the Season of Goodwill to All Men (are women excluded?- my life will be even more miserable at Christmas if so!) Easter 2011 will fall on Sunday 24th April 2011. A Happy Easter to all, and please note that in the New Year you will be able to order on-line from our new on-line sweet shop. It was going to be called "Get Stuffed with chocolate", but we had a rethink, as it sounded a little aggressive. I reckon we're the first to get in with Easter next year. Beaten Marks & Sparks, anyway. This isn't just Easter, this is NPS Easter.

By the way, even though these events come around every year, why is it that so many companies seem caught out and struggle to cover the dates around Christmas and Easter, let alone summer holidays? Saving money? Don't think so. Book it now, have done with it and enjoy a mortar and pestle shaped "morsel" from our portfolio.

Happy Halloween to you all - it's in the pipeline! Only 300 and something days to go. Get your trick or treats ready now, at special unrepeatable prices.

Inciting terrorism?

2010-11-09T10:33:00.000-08:00

On all the news channels, newspapers and media, it seems that we in England at least have sunk to a new low! A plot is uncovered to strike at the heart of our democracy, religious zealots hijacking the cause of religion to turn the mainstream majority into a frenzy of hatred. We are at the highest state of alert, with all the forces of national security and state machinery being turned against the suspected perpetrators of such an awful plot.

Sounds familiar, it could be any day since 9/11 or 7/7.

Worse, there are many who celebrate! They party, they commemorate that the thought of this potential outrage, this terrorist atrocity, this audacious attempt to set citizen against citizen, to fuel racial and religious hatred the world over. It is truly a scandal. And yet there is the potential for these horrible people to be remembered long after the meaning of what they believed in, that which led them to believe in their hearts that the ends justified the means, to enter into the collective memory and be celebrated, to be glorified, not vilified. The people of New York, of Mumbai, or Darfour, will remember crucial dates for ever, the dates etched into their hearts with sadness, with memories of innocent loved ones lost in ultimately pointless acts of evil. Time heals these wounds, it appears. Let us hope so.

London and Britain remember too, what could have been the greatest terrorist atrocity of all on these shores, had it succeeded. 5/11.

Remember, remember, the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot. Are we guilty as charged?

Halloween horrors

2010-10-29T06:24:00.000-07:00

It nust be Halloween when the usual trick or treat brigade venture out.

I'm talking about the ongoing process where both locums and agencies are coming in for an onslaught of derision and devaluation without any prominence being given to the reality of locum life in pharmacy.

Those publications that I have written to or otherwise contacted over the past few nonths, asking that they allow a balanced response or rebuttal to claims that locums are of poor quality, offer poor value for money, won't provide services and any other faulire within pharmacy to get it's act together, include people who should know better. Not just because they are pharmacists, because not all are. Not just because editors have a responsibility to provide balance to articles, letters and features which appear in their publications. Not even because many vested interests have their own agenda and are using this issue as one of many smokescreens for what our "leadership" (whoever or whatever they are) are failing to address - let's not go there just now, my soap box is in for repair.

By failing to bring the profession together in the way that the doctors, nurses and other professionals have achieved, we remain weak politically, within the negotiating sphere and within the areas where we need to make our voice heard. If we do not, the profession is heading down a blind alley, an evolutionary cul de sac, and we won't exist in the form we recognise, if we exist at all, in another five to ten years.

Over the years we at NPS have got used to hearing from pharmacists, be they locums, managers, owners, about how they can't wait for the next few years to be over so they can pack in, as they have had enough of the way things are going, of how interference from outside the profession by people who just do not comprehend what issues are involved in our work is damaging, not improving what we do. We have got used to may experienced pharmacists expressing frustration with not feeling able to do their job the way they believe and know from experience, how it should be done, and who state "If I could find something else to do which kept me and my family as comfortable financially as this job, I'd do it tomorrow".

That is really sad, but it's worse to hear it from pharmacists who only qualified a few months ago! These people really are looking for something else and will take it, even if it means retraining. What a waste, what a shame, what a scandal.

Are you happy to be one of the so called "lazy locums" when you know you're not? Are you happy to carry out MUR's, EHC, Smoking Cessation, Minor Ailments, Repeat Dispensing, Electronic Transfer and so on, when you hear that locums won't provide these services?

We need to unite behind an idea and a principle that does not divide us, with the result that we are always conquerd. We need to take back our agenda, think it through, take it out to people, prove it can work and then make it happen, not wait for some pen pusher who wouldn't know a patient if they fell over one on their way to the next vital meeting.

Time to go, the trick or treaters are at the door!

In the kingdom of blind cynicism, the one eyed man is king.

2010-10-25T11:11:00.001-07:00

We seem to liver in a world, or at least a country, where cynicism is a way of life. The spending cuts recently announced were inevitable, whoever won the last election. It was always a question of how much, how quickly, and not, "we mustn't cut spending". The media, however, have gone off on their rabble rousing activities where even the impartial BBC keep asking us "What's fair for you - are you a winner or a loser?" Maybe we should ask the French or the Greeks what is fair and what isn't.

How many times have you come across a situation where a customer asks you for change? The common stock response, or politely drafted head office answer is "I'm sorry, but we aren't allowed to open the till unless it's to make a sale", which really means "No, we're a pharmacy, we supply medicines. I think it's the bank you want, why not go and ask them for your change?"

On one of my weekly days of work in the real world as opposed to the office, what I like to think of as my "back to the floor" task, I recently got asked the very question. No, not "Is it fair?", but, "Could you possibly change this £5 note into £1 coins for me?" As I was working in someone elses pharmacy, I asked the dispenser whether the company allowed us to do so. I didn't want to get anyone in trouble for acting on my own initiative, nor to set a precedent for the future which might be uncomfortable for all concerned. I didn't get the answer to the question, she simply checked the change tin and swapped the note for the coins and carried on with what she had been doing.

The elderly lady seemed rather pleased and thanked us profusely, wandered about the small sales area and perused the shelves for a moment or two, then shuffled towards the exit, wishing us a very good day and thanking us again. Just before the door, she stopped by the till and carefully put the five £1 coins into the Macmillan Charity Box, and walked away without looking back.

Of course, businesses have to pay at the bank when they put in a change request, so there will have been some financial cost to that business in handing over the five £1 coins, even though the powers that be there may never know it took place, would they have sanctioned the "transaction" had they known?

Coincidentally, less than an hour later, two representatives of the charity came in and asked to empty the box. I recounted my tale of the coins and asked whether they accepted notes in the boxes. They weren't entirely sure but felt that any donation would be acceptable, whatever the form, as I'm sure we all would. Our conversation drifted round to all the good work done by this and other charities, and whether the government understood just how much people depended on services such as those provided by Macmillan. Anyone who has would understand immediately that their work is priceless, but we also concluded that people would do good works not because of the payment, but because only another human, not a government, can understand how much a hand to hold when you are lonely, or a voice at the other end of a telephone when you don't know what to do next, can transform your world.

The ladies were delighted with the money they had collected from the charity box. For the record, it was around £38. If every box they emptied contained as much as this, they explained, we could do so much more. "It just shows that there are a lot of good people out there", they concluded as they were leaving. I am left wondering how many charity boxes around the country are all the more poor because the owner or manager of the premises refuses to give change unless they open the till for a sale.

The power of unity

2010-10-14T10:01:00.000-07:00

Only a person with a heart of stone could not fail to be moved at the plight of los 33, the Chilean miners who this morning were all saved from their underground prison and walked into the promised land of Camp Hope. Perhaps once in a generation, an event where the prayers, belief, empathy of the world unite behind a group of fellow human beings trapped in a struggle to survive against apparently impossible odds. The last time I recall such a world wide event of this nature was the Apollo 13 moonshot.

Both the miners and astronauts had a number of factors working together in their favour. The individuals were united in their determination that they would survive. They were united in their trust in those working tirelessly on their behalf, to think the unthinkable and come up with some ingenious answers, previously never considered, to move heaven and earth and bring them safely home to their loved ones. How they delivered the impossible!

Unity is an amazing concept, hence the phrase "Divide and conquer". All the miners pulled together and worked together in their own way to ensure that as a group, they were in the best circumstance to react positively when the moment of their deliverance came. The unshakable belief of both them and all the support workers and families, so long camped above the mine, that they were all working together for a common aim, that they would succeed against all odds, is inspiring to us all.

We could all learn a little bit from hope, belief and unity. Let's hope none of us is ever in a situation like the Apollo 13 crew or los 33 to have to learn for ourselves what it takes to face the unknown and walk away intact. But just in case, perhaps tomorrow, we should take a first step towards it. We shouldn't waste our chances, as one day, we might be so fortunate as them.

Publish and be damned!

2010-10-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

We've had a number of difficulties to deal with over the past couple of months which we have kept to ourselves, but have now resolved (we hope!) and some of these along with other things we wanted to tell people have been featured in our e-newsletter for October 2010, which was sent to anyone on our mailing list last night.

If you haven't received a copy, it is because you are not on the list. A copy will be available from our website next week, but if you want to receive a copy before then, along with future e-newsletters, please get in touch and provide us with your e-mail address.

As is ever the case with these new ideas, things didn't go quite to plan. On the plus side, it only took eleven minutes to send to a few thousand people and we didn't cause any servers to crash, as far as we know.

One or two people did receive more than one e-mail, as they were in the mailing list more than once and although we did try to check to prevent this, as it was a manual check (no women took part in the checking), inevitably, it was bound to be imperfect. One lucky person did receive twenty six e-mails, all attaching the newsletter. However, as this happened to be our IT manager, it wasn't too big a deal. We analysed the problem to try to prevent future similar episodes and concluded the fault lay with the nut on the keyboard.

The point of using the newsletter is to quickly and comprehensively get across to a large audience information which would take us a long time to repeat to everyone and which may not always be relevant to each and everyone of us. In addition to communicating information via our website, which is averaging 60 000 hits a month and growing, it gives us chance to promote ideas, especially at a time when individuals in the world of pharmacy appear to be being crowded out and having their voices drowned out by big organisations.

Both we, and you, need to make our voices heard and not continue to allow events to overtake us or move us in directions which we do wish to go and more importantly, which we know to be wrong for the profession and the people whom we collectively serve. Together, we are stronger than any of us could possibly be alone. We should remember that.

Little Boy reaches 65 years old - time to give up or get up?

2010-08-06T12:06:00.000-07:00

The idea that the retirement age is being raised from 65 years of age because we are all living longer and that retirement was something most people never saw when the retirement provision was originally constructed.

Shakespeares Seven Ages of Man shows us that little boys have time to play, where play is the work of children, whilst as we pass our prime, we would like time to play more rather than work, but it all has to be paid for somewhere along the line. The worst aspect of judging people by age is that young people often disregard their elders as short of knowledge of the "modern" world based on their experience of six score years of life. Not long ago I had blazing rows with "minor" employees of some PCTs who wanted to "get rid of the old codgers" from the world of pharmacy. Many (codgers) obliged as they were smart and realised we had moved to a scenario where their knowledge and experience would never be acknowledged, and many resigned from the register (of Pharmaceutical Chemists). They were smart enough to see that we were being led by little boys and were following, like lemmings, over the cliff edge. We didn't bother to ask them what they thought, we assumed they were past it. Now, however, we cannot make that choice and must continue to work, even if we don't want to and are not wanted when and if we reach that milestone.

After all, they had been through it all before and built what we inherited and are now bodging due to our relative lack of experience. Does history teach us it's mistakes? Of course! Do we learn them? No!

What was the main news today in all the papers and media? Not the fact that 65 years ago today, Enola Gay dropped Little Boy on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. An estimated 140,000 people were killed instantly or died from the effects of radiation in the months that followed. A further 80,000 people died after the US dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki three days later.
The US has since justified the bombings as an alternative to a potentially prolonged and costly land invasion, saying the devastation wrought on the cities forced Japan's surrender days later, on 15 August.
Some of the 55,000 people attending today's ceremony of remembrance made symbolic offerings of water to the victims, as many had complained of thirst as they lay dying, while schoolchildren read out messages of peace. A single bell tolled as the city's people fell silent at 8:15am, the exact time "Little Boy" detonated.

The day that changed the world forever barely warrants a mention today, 6th August 2010. Would we dare sanction the dropping of a nuclear bomb on anyone today? Since the answer is a resounding "NO!", even though we can't be bothered to ask those who were there, the witnesses of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, why should we bother to ask anyone who has been there before in terms of pharmacy in the UK?

So why would the "leadership" who have claimed us as their "membership" without it ever occurring to them that we might not actually want them to lead us anywhere, as we didn't ask for them in the first place (less than 1 in 5 voted for a change, let me remind us all). This isn't a nuclear bomb - that would be a gross insult to everyone involved in events 65 years ago today. But is a a depth charge, silent running and it will come back to haunt us all if we don't face it down. Is it time for a DIFFERENT new professional body? Some think it is and they range from little boys to over 65 years old and more. Could this be a coalition OF THE WILLING?

P.S. I can't be bothered labelling this post. Technology! Why can't id do it for me?

Smart Cards or Smart People?

2010-07-17T08:15:00.001-07:00

The news that an estimated 200 000 patients are at risk because of inaccurate data in their Care Records has led to GP leaders calling for an immediate halt to the Governments Summary Care Record programme. What's worse, the majority of these care records have been created and uploaded without patients consent.

It appears that the gaps and innacuracies, such as wrong medication or allergies result largely from operators not having the required smart cards to gain access to the system.

Some PCT areas and some LPCs are promoting the requirement of smart cards for pharmacists as mandatory, others are not remotely interested, creating wide differences in day to day working practices accross the country. Add to this the shambolic approach to facilitating the issue of smart cards by different PCTs, it might just be that as the new government decides to save billions of pounds and scrap failing IT projects, this dislocated approach to smart card issue and use accross professions mirrors that of PCTs, may result in the whole project falling flat on ITs feet.

This is not because it doesn't work - it clearly does when set up properly and people get involved. It's that bad old bueracracy again. If only organisations like the NHS stopped running themselves to suit the organisations priorities and focussed on patients priorities, huge and expensive messes like the Summary Care Records fiasco might be avoided and nmore importantly, patients might feel the NHS is there for their benefit.

For years when we have been working with PCTs, Nightingale Pharmacy Services have always striven to get PCTs to understand that pharmacists work accross several PCT boundaries and they need to recognise that patients do too. Trying to get some of the PCT staff to understand that pharmacists can't deliver the patient care they want if the PCT doesn't understand that we work in this way and do nothing to support us and enable us to provide the services we want to.

At least with pharmacy we know where we stand - if we give poor service, the patient can always vote with their feet and go somewhere else. So people are smart and can react accordingly. Cards are not smart.

this twittering world

2010-07-02T04:57:00.000-07:00

"Not here the darkness, in this twittering world.

Descend lower, descend only
Into the world of perpetual solitude"

Not my words, you understand, those of T. S. Eliot who was obviously onto something. If twittering ws good enough for Eliot, I suppose it's good enough for me. Don't think he would have settled for 140 characterrs, though.

The full text is from a quartet of poems, "Burnt Norton". Something to make you stop and think though I don't think it will class as CPD but......

Shooting ourselves in both feet.

2010-07-01T12:03:00.000-07:00

So, there we have it. The first salvos that tell us we're in for our own winter of discontent. The propoganda war starts today. Not that Pharmacists will (or should) go on strike, and yes, despite a typo error on my Profile on our "new project", as I'm not 31 years old and was 18 in the year Thatcher came to power, I do remember the original "winter of discontent" and Britain being the "sick man of Europe). Happy days!

The news that GP's are likely to see their pay cut by a quarter can only be bad news for pharmacy.

http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=4126456&cid=Latest_headlines_1_010710

It's a line in the sand that multiples in particular will clutch and hold on to for grim death, noting that despite the "recession" (aka "a time when people don't buy what they don't need") one of them has posted third year double digit profits. Times must be tough!

We have been advised that one of them is cutting a pound an hour off all locum rates in mid-September, or a 4.54% pay cut BEFORE inflation and IGNORING the 6% year on year prescription volume increase they are likely to get just by organic growth, ignoring again self generated growth (if they have any). So, 6% more work for you for 4.54% LESS pay. Doesn't seem fair, does it? But we're all having to share the pain, aren't we, I hear you say. Not really, we say. Double digit growth means more than 10 %, so somewhere, someone doesn't understand percentages. It could be worse, we could do it in fractions. Ah! I hear you sigh. So what's the answer?

We've said it before and we'll say it again. Vene, Vedi, Vici.

I said we'd been around for a long time. I came, I saw, I conquered. But who thought of Divide and rule? Works every time.

We have terms and conditions, like everyone else. It doesn't matter if some pharmacists break them, does it? Book direct through us and don't tell the agency, and you'll be better off, trust me! Nudge nudge, wink wink. And you're better off! Miraculous! Whilst it lasts, then the calls dry up, then you've no work, then they say, "Tell you what, seeing it's you, we'll do you a favour". You breathe a sigh of relief, before choking at what comes next. "We've had to drop the rates though, you understand, there's a recession on" You fall silent. "Of course, if you don't want it, we've got locums and other agencies queuing up for it...". Then, finally ,despite everything we've told you, you finally realise the truth. You've been mugged. Take a couple of pounds an hour pay cut or get no work. No brainer. Not really - the no-brainer was not listening to our years of experience.

Still, no one died. True, but that's only because pharmacists in the main don't have guns. Human beings normally shoot themselves in the foot. I must have missed those sessions at Uni which taught the rest of my colleagues how to use a gun, since too many are superb when it comes to shooting ourselves in both feet.

In case anyone reading this masitakes these observations for bitterness, forget it. We've been around for over 16 years doing this, and we know how it works, so bitterness was overcome by reality many years ago. Frustration, though, that it always seems to end this way? You could be onto something there. Answer? In the name of everything that is Holy, do not give Pharmacists guns, or we've all had it!

They don't like it up@em!

2010-07-01T06:41:00.000-07:00

..as Corporal Jones would say.

It appears that some of our Members of Parliament don't like their new expenses system. Apparently, they have to pay for their expenses up front, keep receipts, then try to claim their expenses back and it's simply not on, according to M.P.'s.

So, let's consider this for a moment. M.P.'s, who are paid by us, who raise money through taxes on us which we pay by having to submit details of income and expenses via Her Majestys Revenue and Customs, don't like the fact that they (like us) have to pay for expenses they incur in respect of their work, and have to claim the money back. At least they get it back! How much does your accountant allow through on the basis that "the Revenue don't like that"?

Then there's the issue that some of have to contend with, VAT returns, tax returns, PAYE/NIC records and payments, SSP/SMP/SPP, which are usually done outside of work hours, aka Sunday.

At least our hard pressed M.P.'s have an army of people to help them -77 in total, managing the claims of 600 or so M.P.'s. We have to pay our accountants, they aren't provided to us like the M.P.S's get.

Maybe they can find time to pass less stupid laws in the next few years, as they'll be too busy to work in Paliament for having to reclaim the second home allowance! Whilst they're at it, maybe they could repeal a few laws or bring them into line with others.

Let's start here - if an M.P. makes a mistake, they should face a jail sentence, with maybe a warning only if they make a single mistake. That would bring them into line with us Pharmacists, who can be jailed for a dispensing error.

Alternatively, they could change the law to stop us being prosecuted for a mistake. Maybe we would all sleep a little better then. What has the New Professional Body got to say about this idea? Have they raised this matter with our M.P.'s?

We're waiting.........

I've seen the future and I don't like it!

2010-06-30T04:55:00.000-07:00

According to Pulse Today, GPs legal representatives are very concerned about changes to GP fitness to practice hearings being fast tracked. There is a new body replacing the GMC body which fomerly handled such cases and there are concerns that GP's may not be properly represented in such circumstances.

There is a chilling parallel to our own situation here - nobody sets out to be incompetent or inadequate, surely. But the question I am increasingly being asked by colleagues, whether locums, managers, pharmacy owners, is "is there something that we keep me as comfortable as my present income does, because it's becoming a real worry that just doing our jobs could lead us into trouble?"

Follow the link to the article below and see what I mean. Surely, if GPs are worried now, as well as pharmacists, where are the people going to come from to continue operating our professions and the services which we provide in good faith, if we are too frightened to act. So much for a Code of Ethics. We seem damned if we do and damned if we don't.

In the perscution of so called "witches" in the 1600s, witchfinders stated that "good" witches (those who used herbs to cure ailments, or called charms to resolve a worry) were more evil than "bad" witches, (those who used their "powers and skills" for malevolent purposes), and thus the "good" witches deserved greater perscution that the "bad" witches.

That was 400 years ago. What it must be like to live in "enlightened times"!

Fears over introduction of 'fast-track' GP fitness to practise hearings

http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=4126443&encCode=7546292312BC559139429JTBS737226611

RESPONSIBLE PHARMACIST NOTICE - it'a free.

2010-06-18T07:28:00.000-07:00

Yes folks it's true!

We know things appear to have been quiet this past moth or two, but in the background we've been working on the web site and a number of new features are ready or nearly ready.

Weve started with some simple and basic things and yes, they're free!

Have you got to a pharmacy to discover you've forgotten your Responsible Pharmacist Notice, or got home and realised you've left it at the pharmacy you've just been working at and won't be due there again for a while?

We all know we have to display the notice, or we are committing a criminal offence, so what do you do (apart from panic and hope the Inspector doesn't call today)?

It's easy!! Go to our web site www.locumpharmacistuk.com and click on the link to downloads and hey-presto, caramba, golly! You can enter your details and print off a Responsible Pharmacist Notice for the day, or whenever you need one.

Other handy downloads are a Locum Invoice if you need to submit your claim and have not got one available or have left yours at home, as well as your Responsible Pharmacist Notice.

There's a Duty Pharmacist Report template too - much better than leaving a load of Post-its, and you can take a copy of what you have put on your report in case you need to refer to it later.

What's that you say? You can't download these files? Well our clever IT Web Monkey has added a FREE Adobe Reader download to solve that problem too! So there you are, useful, practical tools to offer sensible solutions to the day to dat crises we all face on occasion.

Simples!

Check these out but don't forget to keep checking back, as we will gradually be releasing improved versions of the site with new features including your own Private Page, which will allow access to a range of additional features, from your on-line diary, accounts management and a whole lot more.

What to do when the roof caves in?

2010-03-23T06:48:00.000-07:00

Just when we think spring's on the way, it decides to rain and rain and rain. Then it got through the ceiling of the office above and eventually it comes through our ceiling and the ceiling collapses on us!

Having cleaned off the wet plaster and dusted down the keyboards, we've had to make a temporary relocation to try to manage. The main telephone line of 01482 - 863172 remains operational - if anyone has previously used any of our extension numbers (475195, 475196 etc), these will not work for much longer, so please continue to use the main number.

E-mail and text services remain intact, but for a couple of weeks, speeds might be slower than usual, so please bear with us. A new Post Office Box (P.O. Box) number will be soon used for correspondence and we will announce any other changes via the web site as they occur.

Thanks to the person who offered us the use of their delapidated barn! We're very touched.

Further news on it's way as and when we know it.

Linda and Stephen

ARE WE THERE YET?

2010-03-11T04:33:00.000-08:00

Changing things for the better and making improvements are usually best described as being a "process" rather than an "event".

When we decided, eighteen months ago to completetly change our way of working and to create an interactive web site for locums and clients to use, we had no idea how much of a job we were letting ourselves in for.

To have reached the point where we are at today, which is not yet near finishing what we started, our simple idea has taken on a life of it's own and reached a dizzying level of complexity.

We've often said that when something works well and easily, it's because a lot of hard work has gone ito making it look easy. If anyone would have asked us 18 months back, did we expect to be getting 60 000 hits on the web site every month, we'd have thought that they were mad. What's more surprising now, looking back, is that 60 000 plus hits a month and rising steadily has not caused the whole thing to crash! If you wonder what I mean, 60 000 hits means there have been 60 000 occasions in a month when people have looked at our web site.

That's a lot of looks, for something that is still under development and has so much more yet to be added! Still, even now, locums can log in and add their own availability to increase their chances of picking up work, check out enquiries for work in their area on any given day and even be able to e-mail into us from the web site about any vacancy which interests them.

With the best yet to come, it will be interesting to see what other interest is attracted. Advertising will certainly follow, and before long we hope to have the "Private Members Area" up and running, where registered users will be able to log in and access a much wider range of features and services.

If there is anything you would like to see on there, please get in touch and keep us informed. It may be that advice on accountancy would be helpful, or maybe educational features. What about a "Swap shop" where you can exchange goods or unwanted items, or for excess stock from your pharmacy to be turned to profitable use by exchanging with another pharmacy? All ideas are up for consideration, so why not let us know what you think would be good? With so many people coming to the site now, there must be a lot of scope for us to offer you what you want or need.

It's not often you get something for nothing in this life, is it?

Post code rationing - what's smart about smart cards?

2010-02-03T08:11:00.000-08:00

So the endless frustration with commissioners of health care goes on, especially for pharmacy. A quick interogation of our database shows that on average, a locum pharmacist will work across ten PCT areas over a period of time, many of whom have come up with "local" schemes for EHC or Minor Ailments. The vast majority of locums, like their permanently employed colleagues, want to provide a full range of services wherever they work.

I may live a sheltered existence, but how is unprotected sex which requires EHC any different from one part of the country to another. We had some meetings in London this week and came away frustrated at the inflexibility of different PCTs to recognise a basic or "core" accreditation for EHC, with local variations built in e.g. some will provide the service via pharmacies only to under 19 year olds, others include condom supply, still others are providing material to "demonstrate" to youngsters how to put a condom on to a model of the "real thing" (I'm being as tactful as I can, if anyone dosen't know what I mean, please e-mail and I'll clarify in a more broad minded description; e-mail details on the main site).

I digress at this point. Back on message. Why on earth do we, allegedly well trained, motivated, professionals, who continually update our skills and expertise. The bulk of the questioning and advice and responses we go through are the same from one place to another, some minor local variations on procedure are not beyond our wit to recognise these. Perhaps we sign a fax and send it to say we've read protocols and let's get on with it. Why do I have to turn away a patient in Haringey because I haven't done their local training session but I can do so in Hartlepool?

Then there are smart cards - what's smart about them? Some places have withdrawn pesonal smart cards and have store cards only, others are rolling out release 2 even though many people do not have release 1 and can't get one because the PCT isn't providing them when it's convenient to the pharmacist to get there, and on it goes.

Whilst it's nigglig for us and inconvenient, the patients must wonder what the NHS is about sometimes. Can't get the morning after pill here but you can across the road, why? It's a different PCT, obviously.

You'll soon be able to air your views via our Members Area of the web site. Keep visiting as it will be along soon, along with a host of new things such as your own Private Area, on line booking and diary, Pharmacy Finder. I could go on, but you'll see soon enough.

GET ME OUT OF HERE, I'M A PHARMACIST!

2009-12-02T04:38:00.000-08:00

I don't like to associate myself with the similar titled television offering, but for once, I have a lot of sympathy for the celebs. (I will say that only once!!)

The last month has been a roller coaster of activity behind the scenes, and whilst anyone checking the web site (www.locumpharmacistuk.com) might have noticed very little changing, behind the scenes, in the 99% of the site which the public can't see or use, we've introduced so many changes and improvements that I'm in danger of losing the plot.

I now know more about Active Server Pages and Comma Seperated Variables than most people, certainly most in Pharmacy, anyway. These and a host of other items are helping us make the site an interactive quantum leap forward from what we have been doing. So far. you may have noticed "Test data" where Available Bookings ought to be and much of the Urgent Bookings have been ignored whilst we test out the system.

Result? In 2010, pharmacists will be able to log in to their own personal page, or "Lounge" (User Name and Password Protected) and update their information; availability for locum work, interest in permanent vacancies, job search, and also manage their own professional and financial information relating to work done.

Clients (Owners, Managers, Area Managers and Locum co-oordinators) will have their own "Lounge" (also User Name and Password Protected) to help manage and request locum bookings or request the Recruitment Service for Permanent Vacancies.

All of this information will feed into our databases at the touch of a button and allow us to interactivley support you, whether you are looking for Locum Work, a new full time job or if you need a locum or manager.

There will be other special features only available within The Members' Areas which will be accessible only to Registered Users. Registration will be free. Anybody can rgister their interest by telephoning, texting or e-mailing with your contact e-mail address, so that we can notify you as and when services come on-stream.

We think it will make life so much easier for everyone who chooses to use it, that we can't wait for 2010 to come! Why not make it your New Year Resolution to join up and see the benefits this will bring to you? We'll be waiting in the New Year for you, but in the meantime, does anyone know how to get me back to 2009 - I don't want to miss Christmas!

BNP - have we learnt nothing from history?

2009-10-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

I was shocked to discover that almost a million British people voted for the BNP (British National Party) in the recent European Elections. Seventy years ago a whole generation of young men (and women) combined from all parts of the world fought - and many died, giving their tomorrows for us to have freedom today. Those who fought against the horrors and evil of Nazism came from all countries, races, colours and creeds. A tide of humanity united against the atrocities that were committed against so many innocent people, and hoped that they had left behind a better world for us to inhabit.

Nick Griffin and his party have the right to free speech that we often forget is so precious to liberty - Napoleon Bonaprte was quoted as saying "Four hostile newspapers are to be feared more than a thousand bayonets". Free speech is a two way street, however, and whilst some of the questions and comments put to Mr. Griffin showed him and his beliefs to be at best, confused, at worst, abhorrent, my favourite quip of the night was from Bonnie Greer, who kept her cool admirably throughout, pointing out "All of us are descended from Africa".

I've always found pharmacy to be a very tolerant and meritocratic beast and have rarely come accross any racist tendencies with people I have worked with. I'm sure some individuals have experienced it in their time and I have been told by some during a recruitment process that they do fear it's effect and impact, which has a huge influence on areas where they might consider working and living. That is soul destroying to hear.

My favourite incident which highlighted the crass stupidity of people believing in racial stereotypes occurred a few years backm, when we recruited a man, we'll call him Geoff (not his real name) for an independent pharmacy, after considering posts with a small group and a major multiple. Geoff enjoyed three years in the job in a middle class, almost exclusively white populated area. His patients and customers really thought very highly of him, not just because he was so good at this job, but because he was a really pleasant, caring, dedicated man who would go out of his way for anyone. I don't know if it helped his situation that he spoke with a cut-glass English accent that would have fitted well on the BBC in the 1950's.

More than once after securing the job for Geoff, I visited the pharmacy to see how he was getting on. It never failed to make me smile when a ptient who had spoken to him on the telephone came into the pharmacy and saw him for the first time. After asking to speak with Geoff, they were told politley, "Hello Mr. Jones, nice to meet you at last. I'm Geoff". There would follow a moment of uncertainty as Mr. Jones would stutter, "But.. but..". "Geoff would help them out "Yes Mr. Jones, I'm black. I'm from Nigeria". A relieved Mr. Jones would reach out to shake Geoff's extended hand "But you sound so English!".

No Longer voices in the wilderness

2009-10-22T06:20:00.000-07:00

One of the good things about my job is that I am in touch with more pharmacists in a day than most other people. If you act as a manager, owner or locum, you probably are the only pharmacist in a premises and don't get chance to exchange views or opinions and I know that many people feel that they are lone evoices in the wilderness, ignored and disregarded by the powers that be, unless they are unfortunate enough to fall foul of the regulations for some reason, RP being the most recent one to have caused massive confusion and anxiety. Many people have privately expressed the feeling that if they could find a job that kept them and their families in the same degree of financial stability and comfort that they currently experience, they would almost certainly take it. What a sad state of affairs that we have come to this.

Words often mean more when we know the people who speak them, and when their opinions strike a resonant chord with us. Two examples I can quote from people whom I know and who have put their words on record recently with regard to RP. Richard Rutter and Dorothy Drury have left comments on the PJonline for all to see.

http://www.pjonline.com/news/rp_regulations_should_be_applied_flexibly_says_doh

Please look at these and see if they make sense to you. Perhaps those who drafted the RP regulations and pressed for their implementation should have consulted the likes of pharmacist such as Mrs. Drury and Mr. Rutter, and thousands like them. It would surely have led to a better scenario than the risk of a criminal prosecution for such heinous acts of misconduct, such as forgetting to log out at the end of the day.

We hope to quickly establish a specific forum on this issue with an input from someone who has access to the powers that got us into this mess. Keep checking back to the main web site and join the debate. People often complain that they are ignored and that they have no voice - we aim to help remedy that, but it will take your contribution to achieve it. Don't settle for being a silent majority of one any longer: your opinion matters and can help to change things for the better.

Don't forget to sign out as Responsible Pharmacist

2009-10-07T01:17:00.000-07:00

So there we have it-forgetting to sign out at the end of the day when you go home is a criminal offence under Responsible Pharmacist legislation. Inspectors from the RPSGB will take a pragmatic line, according to an interview in Chemist & Druggist, but does that make you sleep easy at night? After the Elizabeth Lee case and all that followed, this is potentially a step that could give a pharmacist a criminal record!

What do we do about it? I don't know, but will be e-mailing the one member of RPSGB Council whom I know and asking her to raise this matter urgently and see if a review of the legislation can be brought about to make it much more sensible. I didn't join this profession to be criminalised for something so apparently trivial, did you?

1st October, a momentous day!

2009-10-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

1st October was a massive day in history.

331 BC: Alexander the Great defeats the Darius III of Persia at Gaugamela, making him master of Asia Minor.
1938: German troops march into the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, under the auspices of the Munich Agreement.
1949: The People’s Republic of China is proclaimed, following the Communist victory in China’s civil war.

Did anything else of note happen for you on this day?

AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, I'M NOW A RESPONSIBLE PHARMACIST

2009-10-01T03:51:00.000-07:00

And I have a card to prove it! I haven't figured out how I've got away with it all these years, behaing irresponsibly. I guess that someday it was always going to catch up with me, and from today I must put aside all childish things and behave responsibly.

The trouble is, when I read closely all the different protoccols and interpretations being offered (imposed?) by different companies, I'm not that sure what has changed in reality, other than the long overdue farce that a pharmacy was hitherto breaking the law if sales of GSL medicines were allowed to take place when the pharmacist was not present, when the petrol station down the street could sell what they wanted. When I was getting some milk the other day from a supermarket which didn't have a pharmacy, I noticed Canesten Combi on the shelves on open display and available for anyone to buy. So, if a pregnant lady describes symptoms which match thrush, if it the first episode, we are obliged to refer to the GP to ensure that there are no underlying problems with the pregnancy. Or she can just walk to the supermarket and buy it to avoid the hassle, because in a previous pregnancy we did the same thing and the GP prescribed Canesten anyway and grumbled about our incompetence. When I later explained the referall protocol he (the GP) was non-plussed and clearly unaware, which speaks volumes for inter practitioner communication.

But, I digress. I have always worked on the basis of if I'm the pharmacist on duty, I'm responsible. I accept that where there are two pharmacists on duty, there needs to be a clarification of roles etc., but as we all know, that's a rarity. So what has changed? I now have a card telling everyone I am responsible.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I have never had a problem with patients/customers knowing I'm responsible, I make it plain. Whether it's tryingto make eye contact as soon as they are near enough, whether it's the interaction between the staff and myself, whether I just have one of those faces which says "I have a very responsible job around here - if anything goes wrong, I'm responsible!"

In practice, I think the way the regulations have been framed and get interpreted will make them unworkable. We now have too many chiefs and not enough indians. We have Pharmacist (Responsible or Second), Pharmacy Manager/Store Manager, in either capacity rarely a pharmacist but with poweres deferred or devolved (until it goes wrong, then everyone turns to the Pharmacist), ACT's and so on.

Who takes the wrath of the patient if an error is made? If the ACT gets it wrong but the Pharmacist has made the clinical check? The fact is, we all make mistakes, so to single individuals out will not work as it all too often allows us to evade accountability. To quote a football adage, "We win as a team and we lose as a team". This change in regulations may have created a Responsible Pharmacist, but is it in danger of losing accountability? Only time will tell.

Swine flu vaccination? Don't call us!

2009-09-01T08:15:00.000-07:00

So there you have it! According to an article in The Chemist and Druggist, the Health Minister, Andy Burnham, has not included Pharmacits in the list of Health care Professionals who should receive vaccination against swine flu http://tinyurl.com/n4393h .

This surely shows either how little the government (and especially this particular Health Minister - formerly Minister for Pharmacy, no less) know or care about the profession. With that in mind, and leaving aside the obvious health issues not just for pharmacists, but for all members of all pharmacy teams, is the penny ever going to drop with us all that we need far more that the proposed new professional body (which the overwhelming majority of the profession did NOT vote for). If this is the best they can do, we need to really take charge of our own destiny and explain, lobby and utilise the media in the way other groups do. There doesn't seem to be anything other than the deafening sound of silence from our leadership.

Most of us have families, some of whom themselves might be vulnerable individuals. To exclude us wholesale from the programme beggars belief, given the likelihood that as a group, we are more likely than most to come in contact with the public. How many pharmacies are either collection points for anti-virals or will inevitably be the front line in meeting potentially infected people face to face, seeing the public are being told not to go to work, to A & E, the GP - but theyare not being told to avoid the pharmacy, where they can at least buy medicines to treat their symptoms or collect prescriptions.

Co-op Pharmacy withdraw from NPA

2009-08-28T03:01:00.001-07:00

Official notification today that the Co-operative Pharmacy has withdrawn from the National Pharmaceutical Association. This has implications for all pharmacists and locums, especially with regard to PIA. Whilst the Co-op have a history of insurance via the CIS (Co-operative Insurance Services), so this doesn't seem an unreasonable move, the small print may yet need to be checked as to how it might impact on indemnity insurance. We should all be checking our own policies carefully to make sure we have adequate protection in the rare event that we need it.

On the plus side, they have set up their own helpdesk which they claim will do the same job as the NPA Information Service and this is available during store opening hours. Perhaps we could get some constructive feedback on how this is working from locums where they have to use it?

On a broader front, it does beg the question as to whether the NPA will be damaged by the loss of such a large cohort of members - the Co-op is now the third biggest pharmacy chain in the UK so this will represent significant loss of revenue to the NPA as well as loss of members. Will it affect service levels and support generally in the future? Only time will tell.

Where does the responsibility lie with The Responsible Pharmacist?

2009-08-20T08:54:00.000-07:00

There seems to be more confusion over The Responsible Pharmacist regulations, at least as far as some companies are concerned. I quote what one has sent out to all it's branches and regular locums recently.

" The Responsible Pharmacist will be responsible for the establishment, maintainance and review of a range of Standard Operating Procedures (The Superintendent's Office will be writing these and sending them out from July 2009)."

I know I can be a bit slow on the uptake, but surely this statement alone demonstrates either a lack of understanding by this company (there are others, this is just one example) or reflects the general malaise that has taken root in our half baked rush to a new professional body. If The Resposnible Pharmacist is the person who establishes, maintains and reviews, then the Superintendent can surely not write these, otherwise (by definition) the Superintendent is The Responsible Pharmacist. Assess and advise by all means - two heads are better than one, at least in most cases.

If The Responsibile Pharmacist is unable to excercise their responsibility (because the Superintendent has taken responsibility) how are they responsible?

In other words, when things go wrong, and we all know that things go wrong, who will bear responsibility? If we have a professional body now or in the future worth and credibility, surely now is the time to resolve this looming disaster before it affects a patient and we all look like fools. I can make a fool of myself, without any help from anyone else assisting, but this begs the question "Do these people have a clue about anything?"

I believe I know the answer - WYBMADIITY?

So, what's the question?

Swine Flu -where's the locum contingency?

2009-08-17T04:36:00.000-07:00

We've worked hard as far as we have been able over the last two or three years to persuade many groups (Companies, PCT's, LPC's, locums, pharmacies) to have contingency plans in place should their pharmacy be affected by any pandemic, not just this current Swine Flu outbreak. Few people appear to have thought us relevant and so have either ignored us or, as we suspect, might not have given the remotest thought to community pharmacy.

If your manager, pharmacist or locum gets hit wirh Swine Flu, what do you plan to do? Call or -email us and assume we can fulfil demand? Have you considered the possible cost? We have enough of a fight getting the summer holidays covered for some pharmacies at a cost which they feel to be reasonable, what will happen to costs in a pandemic?

We might have to persuade people to work in your area from another part of the country. Such people will need accomodation in most cases. They might not want to come to work in an area where Swine Flu has taken hold in any case, irrespective of what they might want to charge.

If you're a locum, are you aware that you have a contractual liability to provide a replacement if you are unable to fulfil a locum booking? Swine Flu is no exemption from this obligation, but in real terms, could you obtain a replacement?

As usual, down at the coal face, too little thought has been given to keeping the pharmacy network going if and when things do go wrong. Some long days and nights look to be in store for those left holding the baby and thos of us who will do our best to help.

Greedy locums save the day?

2009-08-10T01:37:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed that when a company can't get a locum for a particular day, some of their staff complain that they will have to resort to using "a greedy locum". What they mean, of course, is one of the last minute or emergency locums, or more often than not, someone who has already worked a full week and offers to give up their day off to help. If anyone else does overtime, don't they normally get extra pay such as time and a half or double time? Not pharmacists, they (apparently) are greedy for asking to be paid more!

Of course, if there is a need for a locum, it either means that someone else is off sick or for other good reason, a mistake has been made in the booking process, so a pharmacist is not present or that some other pressing reason has arisen requiring the presence of a pharmacist somewhere other than where they were originally intended to be. Note that the NHS Pharmacy Contract does not allow any leeway on this matter - it requires the contractor i.e. the owner of the company owning a pharmacy - to provide NHS Pharmaceutical Services during their contractual hours. The regulations DO NOT STATE that if it costs a contractor more to secure the services of a locum than they might wish to pay, then they are allowed an exemption from this requirement.

Very often, it seems, that the people responsible for booking locums for companies are ignorant of the responsibility that goes with the job (If anyone is any doubt about the consequences of making just one mistake, consider Elizabeth Lee and her situation) and of the length of time required for us to train before we are allowed to practice.

For those that are jealous of what a locum can earn, I suggest they stop what they are doing and go back to school (at least 3 good "A" levels needed, usually two years study, then the pharmacy degree course, four years, then the year's pre-registration training before we can earn a living). Just think, in the seven years that will have passed by then (assuming that you pass all the exams and other hurdles), locum rates will be even more than they are now, and you too can become "a greedy locum". Of course, you won't, because you're not greedy, so you won't charge what the rest of us do, will you?

I am the one in ten

2009-08-03T08:36:00.000-07:00

According to the PJ 1st August 2009, "One in 10 pharmacists is considering quitting" the profession, according to the workforce survey comissioned by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Commenting on this, Sue Ambler (Head of research and development at the Society) said; "The data will be utilised to help identify how both the General Pharmaceutical Council and the new leadership body can further and strengthen support for pharmacists".

What a load of bulls!

2009-07-09T02:14:00.000-07:00

I think I may have the most oringinal excuse ever for being late for work! To get to the office, I have to drive through Beverley Westwood, a large area of grass or parkland with a few trees and copses dotted about. The Westwood is big enough to incorporate Beverley Racecourse comfortably. As a view from the front windows of the office, there are worse vistas to look out on, although The Rose and Crown public house is situated right on the corner of the road leading into the Westwood, and on a hot day it's not much fun glancing up to see people enjoying cold beer or lemonade whilst we plough through the bookings.

A local bye-law allows any yeoaman who was born within the town walls of Beverley, to "graze his cattle at no expense on the Westwood. The thing is, when these beasts are grazing, they really do run free and frequently decide to cross the road to see if the grass is greener on the other side. They couldn't care less about the traffic, they just wander about at leisure and as half a ton of animal closes up, you realise that if they decided to run, they could cause major damage to your car. One or two of them look a little smug, as if they know you're late and they seem to go that bit slower. There's nothing you can do, but wait until they've gone.

We know sometimes locums are late for work, especially if they are going to an unfamiliar pharmacy. I'd really like to see the faces on some wallah at a head office when they read the report of why the locum was ten minutes late!

If anyone has any better excuses for being late, please go the forum where we've added a new section for this.

Dispensing error improves a patient's health

2009-04-16T06:56:00.000-07:00

It's a topical subject in the week that a London pharmacist was given a suspended jail sentence for being the pharmacist in charge of a pharmacy where a dispensing error occured and whilst the coroner ruled that the taking of some tablets which were dispensed in error did not contribute to the patient's death, the pharmacist was nevertheless prosecuted, I came accross a story of where a dispensing error improved a patient's health and well-being.

The story goes that a patient who always used the same pharmacy had been refused a repeat prescription by their surgery on the grounds that they should still have another month's medication. The patient insisted they had run out of the medication and further discussion led to the suggestion that at the time of dispensing, a dose reduction to half the previous dose had been made on the prescription, but missed whilst dispensing and the former dose had been repeated from the pateint medication record.

The surgery had reported the incident to the pharmacy, who verified that the medication had been incorrectly labelled at the former dose. Meanwhile, the patient was checked out by the doctor, who carried out blood tests and examination of the patient. The doctor's conclusion was that the patient was far better on the higher dose of medication, despite the dispensing error, and forthwith the patient was to remain on the higher dose after all.

The patient declared themselves very happy with the outcome and even thanked the pharmacist concerned for their error, which had resulted in an improvement in their wellbeing. This is a true story. The circumstances have been left vague to protect identities of all concerned.

Should the pharmacist be prosecuted, jailed, fined or given a pat on the back? As many a collegaue has echoed their feelings this week, there but for the grace of God go I.

Is that a date, then?

2009-04-15T04:30:00.000-07:00

I recently worked a Saturday at a pharmacy that had a branch close by - let's just say it was one of the many multiples. There were only the two pharmacies in the town. The afternoon became fairly quiet and the staff decided to have a grumble about the previous week's events. It seemed that they had been provided with a second pharmacist from abroad (European Union national, to narrow it down a bit), who had been trained up to what was deemed UK standard and was taking over the other branch as pharmacist/manager the Monday following.

The pharmacist had taken it upon herself to completely rearrange the dispensary (which had been in it's existing layout for some years) so that "it would be easier to find things" and that "any locum will be able to find stock easily". This included moving a set of shelves containing "fast moving lines" from immediately next to the computer and main dispensing area and arranging a shelf five inches deep and with around four inches clearance between it and the shelf above as a "checking area". Now either the locals get very small sized items round there, or it had escaped the pharmacists' notice that rarely used items e.g. 500ml Lactulose, 500g Aqueous Cream etc, would not fit in this gap. No matter, no contingency plan, no sense, no point. Apparently, soneone at head office said it was they way to do things, so that is how things were to be done. It didn't work, but that was not the point.

For most of the day, nobody could find anything in the drawer system, despite the improvement aimed at making my (the locum's) life easier, it was a nightmare trying to find anything at all. That applied equally to myself as well as the staff who had worked there for some years.

What did concern me most was not that the pharmacists concerned had carried out this wholesale rearrangement of the dispensary oblivious to the concerns of the staff who would have to continue to work with the mess she'd made after she'd gone. That was just plain bad manners and arrogance. No, the worst bit was that during the course of he day I picked out from this recently handled stock over two hundred (yes, 200) different items, all of which were out of date. This pharmacist was supernumary, there had been locums in all of the week, so she had not had to bother getting involved in the day to day work.

Now, if you've taken it upon yourself to move every single pack, bottle or item of stock during the whole of the previous week, yet managed to "overlook" so may out of date items (that ignores items which would become out of date very shortly, since I didn't have the time to be as thorough as I would have wished), what on earth is your checking process for dispensed items like? Don't you check the expiry date when checking, don't you have a date checking rota and/or matrix to assist, don't you simply take the job seriously enough to do some of the basics?

By now, this pharmacist, whom I have never met and do not know, is running a fairly busy pharmacy wihtout any scrutiny other than the RPSGB inspectorate making their routine visits. If she doesn't pay attention to date checking, what else does she not pay attention to? This is surely a fundamental failure of training as well as attitude - do you really need the length of training we now require to understand the importance of expiryr and use before dates on medication? It's not rocket science, after all. But then, there lies the nub of it - if the building blocks are not in place, what happens when the rocket tries to lift off?

CPD (Childish Piffling Details)

2009-04-01T11:13:00.000-07:00

Don't misunderstand me. I think it's right and proper that we all keep our skills and knowledge up to date and constantly assess our performance on a regular basis. Hey, I'm no saint, the halo slips from time to time, and I don't do every single CPPE course that comes along, as they don't always have relevance to my area of work.

I have a friend/colleague who works in such a rare area of pharmacy that there is no formal CPD to work from. His area is so specialised that if anyone was to write a course on it, it would have to be him because nobody else does what he does. Who would mark it, assess it or verify that it was appropriate to his needs? Well, maybe his clients and customers. If they were dissatisfied with his performance, they would vote with their feet (well, to be precise, their orders and cheque books).

The CPD isn't the issue. It's how to record something which has no rule book? It's easy to record how you've had a bright idea and discussed it with Mary, your regular locum over a coffee break, and realised that you should make some notes to bring up at the next meeting. If someone wants an answer right now or you are going to lose your order and therefore your income, you need to find out the answer correctly, first time and quickly. Otherwise, kiss your order goodbye! So how do you record it?

The problem seems to be with those who are charged with regulating us. They need to be able to tick the boxes which say "Evidence submitted? Y/N". It's a pass or fail with no quality control built in. Are you really a better pharmacist because you've done a course about "Getting your 5 a day" when you don't work in a sector which deals with patients at that level? I don't think so. What do you think? Answers allowed to the Blog, or why not start a thread on the Forum? Go to the web site www.locumpharmacistuk.com and click on the link to The Forum. Have your say instead of grumbling to yourself like I do on this blog. I'm not always right, just most of the time!

What's the attraction of Norfolk for a locum pharmacist?

2009-03-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

I don't know either, but there must be some, maybe at least one! I keep getting asked for work in Norfolk and being told that the rates are really good - they'd need to be! If you've never been to Norfolk, there are a couple of things you should know. It's flat. It has lots of water. That's it really. It's a little mind-boggling to find yourself driving along when suddenly out of the side window, you notice that the water seems to be at a higher level than the car and the only thing holding it back is a muddy bank of earth.

It's probably an ok place if you like doing things on the water, as there's lots of it. And if global warming does cause the sea levels to rise, places will have to be renamed such as Burnham on Sea would become Burnham under the Sea. Still, if the rates are as good as they say, it might be worth a look whilst it's still above water.

Emergency Locum Rates

2009-03-10T10:10:00.000-07:00

Is it me or am I missing something? If a company doesn't have a pharmacist for the day, through illness or for any other reason, then they need a locum at short notice. If it's my day off and they want me to work, do they seriously expect me to work for free? I've already worked as much (or probably more than) as I want to to begin with, so am I unreasonable in asking them to make it sufficiently worth my while? Ok, they don't like paying what they call travel time, say £25 an hour plus 2, giving me an extra £50 per day on top of what I would normally charge, so pay me £30 or £35 an hour.

After all, it's not my fault they have a pharmacy without a pharmacist, and if I'm making sacrifices to help them out, it would be nice to feel appreciated for my efforts, not to made to feel like a scrounger or a thief. Saying thank you sometimes would be nice, rather than assuming I have a duty to bale them out of a hole. If what I am doing is "overtime", then anyone else would excpect to get paid extra, say time and a half or double time if it's a weekend or unsocial hours. That would make my rate between £37.50 to £50 per hour. I guess they would like that even less!

Does anyone else think I'm barking mad, or do you expect to be fairly reimbursed, especially if you are being asked to drive a couple of hours each way before and after work. Again, is it my fault they have a pharmacy miles from anywhere and miles from where I live, but I'm prepared to help them out? Perhaps we should pay them for working extra or giving up our days off?

Why is the morning after different in Sunderland and Southend?

2009-02-03T06:08:00.000-08:00

I know that there have to be policies for how to get things done, but why is it that I can supply EHC in certain parts of the country but not in others? There's nothing worse than turning away a woman who is clearly in need of the service because I haven't done the local PCT training course. The end result is the same, they either need it or they don't. O.k., there may be different criteria in each area, but I can read, so why not let me fill in a form to say I've read it, understand it and will abide by it's terms and conditions provided I first let them have a copy of my accreditation from wherever I got the training? Or do people have unprotected sex differently depending on the post code?

Weather to or Not

2009-02-03T03:31:00.000-08:00

Has the weather affected you and your ability to get to work? or did you hot foot it on your ski's and get there in good time? let me know how many of you Locums made it in...