Filing pharmacy what is it? It sounds like a pharmacy that needs support, direction, leadership and some mentoring. Pharmacy has been the only healthcare service open and fully accessible to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been given the least support from so called supporting authorities.
The Pharmacist Defence Association has suggested that the local health boards should take over these ‘failing community pharmacies and absorb them into the NHS’. However, the NHS is already extremely overworked and over burdened, how can it be expected to take on the additional responsibility that these ‘failing pharmacies’ will require? And will this change in responsibility actually solve the problem?
After 12 years of working in community pharmacy, my experience has primarily been that of helping ‘failing pharmacies’ getting back on their feet, throughout ,my experiences I have identified a few key factors which actually help:
Firstly, focus on looking after the staff that serve the patients and customers in their community day in and day out. These people are so over worked and when they are not appreciated, empowered or motivated, you lose them. Investing in staff development is necessary to achieving a level of high service in your pharmacy. Sadly this essential part is overlooked in many pharmacies, teams are not led, they are managed. Teams are not empowered, they are put under extreme pressure. Teams are not appreciated, they are asked to give more and more. Perhaps if some time and effort is invested into developing and upskilling our teams, they will become more efficient, the workload will be managed better and therefore result in a smoother patient journey.
Secondly, Reviewing and Changing how we do things – some pharmacies have been around for so long and have worked the same way without adapting to the rapidly changing demands of our customers and patients and they just can not keep up. Sometimes small changes in our operations can make big differences to our efficiency and growth. But who is responsible for the implementation of this change and innovation? The responsible pharmacist? The staff? The pharmacy owners? To be honest they are all probably so exhausted from the rat race they feel deflated and may be at a loss of courage and energy to carry on, especially following the past two years of working tirelessly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic which just does not seem to end.
Thirdly, Supporting pharmacists – do pharmacists really get the support they need? Who actually supports them? The GPhC is a governing body to ensure we abide by the rules, the employer’s employee us, the union bodies try to stand up for us, but who actually assists with our development and our cries for help when things get tough? The truth is there is not a lot of support out there for us pharmacists, so when working conditions get tough, things start to breakdown; operations, procedures, tasks, standards… and then what? You are labelled as a ‘failing pharmacy’ and passed to the health board to manage you?
I do not believe the answer is for the NHS to absorb ‘failing pharmacies’ including the ones which regularly close ‘due to lack of pharmacists’ and breach their contract with the health board, but to actually identify the reasons for the pharmacy being labelled as ‘failing’.
Is this due to a failure in the operations/ standards and / or lack of staff? Is it due to not sourcing adequate pharmacist cover? or due to the pharmacist requiring more support on how to manage a pharmacy and staff? Is it looking at how much support the large multiples invest into these pharmacies and holding them more accountable?
I think it is better to take a deeper look into the problems of community pharmacy and solve these, rather than pass them over to the already overworked NHS.
Something needs to change and pharmacies require support, time, resources and investment, more so now than ever before. After all we have been one of the few sectors working on the ‘frontline’ throughout the entire pandemic, ensuring that we are always accessible to all members of the public and now we need more support and recognition back for the work we do and responsibility we take to ensure that our communities and country are safe.