Pharmacy advice 'frequently poor'
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BBC NEWS | Health | Pharmacy advice 'frequently poor'
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Pharmacy advice 'frequently poor'
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Shoppers react to their exeprience with pharmacy staff
Staff at pharmacies are frequently giving inappropriate and occasionally dangerous advice to patients, a survey has suggested.
Staff at Which? magazine visited 101 pharmacies in the UK, and claimed they received "unsatisfactory" advice on a third of occasions.
In some instances, powerful migraine drugs were sold without any supervision by the pharmacist.
One pharmacy body said its own "mystery shoppers" had seen improvements.
The government and pharmacy organisations are keen for some medicines previously available only with a GP prescription to be dispensed "over-the-counter".
However, this often relies on pharmacy teams asking the right questions before selling the medicine, and the Which? survey suggests this is not always happening.
They found that independent pharmacies were most likely to give the wrong advice, or not carry out the right checks.
The Which? staff confronted the pharmacies with one of three scenarios - a request to buy "Imigran Recovery", a migraine medication; a patient complaining of two weeks' of diarrhoea after returning from abroad, and a request for the "morning-after pill" designed to test whether a customer's privacy could be respected.
Imigran Recovery should only be dispensed following a series of questions set by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, but Which? ranked 13 out of 35 visits as "unsatisfactory".
In 40% of the 13, the pharmacy assistant did not even alert the pharmacist before handing over the drug.
The patient with travellers' diarrhoea should have been asked about symptoms and advised to see a GP if they had not already done so, in case the diarrhoea was due to a serious infection.
However, 14 out of 32 visits were "unsatisfactory", with one assistant suggesting the symptoms were caused by irritable bowel syndrome instead.
Indiscreet questions
The request for emergency contraception was dealt with poorly in seven out of 34 visits - in two pharmacies, the woman was questioned about her sex life within earshot of other customers.
Neil Fowler, the editor of Which?, said: "People are increasingly turning to pharmacies for the sort of advice they might have gone to their GP for in the past - but we're concerned that in some cases they're getting advice which is unsuitable and potentially unsafe."
The National Pharmacy Association, which represents community pharmacies, said that while the survey was reassuring about the skills of pharmacists themselves, it showed there was "room for further improvement" in other pharmacy staff.
A spokesman said: "In this study the expertise of the pharmacist is shining through. Work needs to be done to increase the support given to the whole of the pharmacy team."
She said the association had been "encouraged" by the results of its own "mystery shopping" exercise.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society agreed that there were issues that needed to be addressed, but said that the survey covered fewer than 1% of all pharmacies in the UK.
A Department of Health spokesman said its research had shown the public was satisfied with pharmacy services.
But he said that April's pharmacy White Paper set out plans for measures to deal with "unwarranted variations" in standards and quality of service delivery.
"We are currently consulting on proposals to enable primary care trusts to take effective action where contractors are not achieving acceptable performance standards."
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SEE ALSO
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With a reasoned kin to a more melodic Van Halen (and their lyrics often transaction with the content of heartache), Dokken issued their debut recording, Break the Chains, in 1982, number one through the European label Carerre ahead Elektra gestural the grouping and reissued the album in the U.S. Although Ratt bassist Juan Croucier played on the album, newbie Jeff Pilson became a permanent member briefly after. 2 back-to-back atomic figure 79 qualified albums followed, 1984's Tooth and Peg and 1985's Under Put away and Key, as Dokken became one of severe rock's near bright dylan Marlais Thomas Loretta Young bands. It was likewise during this time that Lynch began receiving actualization for his six-string skills. With Randy Rhoads dead somebody and Eddie Vanguard Halen focalization more on songwriting than shredding, guitar slingers were looking for for a freshly hero by the mid-'80s, and Lynch fit the bill -- as he received myriad accolades and appearances at the comprehend of polls in guitar magazines. Lynch besides became known for his interesting-looking instruments, especially one carven into the habitus of a lacerate underframe in the closet (a foresighted and fruitful kinship with the E.S.P. guitar company likewise began around this prison house term).Just with major breakthrough success beckoning, Dokken seemed to number aside at the seams. It was no secluded that Lynch and Dokken ne'er saw oculus to middle, and their shaky human relationship only if if worsened during the circuit in support of 1987's atomic number 78 strike, Gauge for the Attack (an record record album which included the Lynch guitar vitrine "Mr. Scary"). Even a slot on 1988's much-hyped Monsters of Stone U.S. hitch (which besides included Vanguard Halen, the Scorpions, Metallica, etc.) couldn't redeem the sinking Dokken get off, as the root word proclaimed their rip shortly after the tour's mop up. After an obligatory unrecorded album, Wildcat From the East, was issued, Lynch opted to class a new outfit, the Lynch Family, instead of what many fans hoped for -- a guitar-shredding solo record album. Connexion Lynch in the freshly turnout was vocaliser Office of Naval Intelligence Mount Logan, bassist Susan B. Anthony Esposito, and belatedly Dokken drummer Daniel Jones, wHO issued their debut album, Unholy Sensation, in 1990. While the record record album performed respectfully on the charts, the group's sound was almost a atomic number 6 transcript of Dokken's and failed to bust the radical commercially. End-to-end the former '90s, Lynch issued just about other handout under the Lynch Ring diagnose (1992's self-titled sophomore drive) and as a solo creative person (1993's Sacred Channel), the latter of which Lynch in the outset place planned on inviting such singers as Phil Anselmo and Chris Ezra Cornell to guest on, but wound up settling on Matthew and Gunnar Nelson (!), among others. With both Lynch and Dokken's split up careers non what they once were, the vocaliser and the guitar player settled their differences at the behest of their record ship's company, as the Lynch-Dokken-Brown-Pilson scorecard of Dokken reunited in 1994. An "unplugged" album/home picture followed a year later on, Ace Experience Night, only old habits were intemperately to break, as Dokken and Lynch butted heads erstwhile over again nerve-wracking to resolve on a melodious guidance on such subsequent lusterless studio albums as 1995's Dysfunctional and 1997's Shadowlife. Both albums failed to deliver Dokken second to the top of the charts, as Lynch left the radical one time to a greater extent shortly thenceforth. The latterly '90s/early 21st hundred saw Lynch stand out between progeny albums with the Lynch Family (with variable members) and as a solo creative person -- resulting in such further titles as 1999's Smoking This, 2001's Testament Play for Solid food, 2002's holiday transcription The Lynch That Stole Riffness, and 2003's Wicked Resistance, the latter of which adage Lynch reunite with ex-Dokken bassist Pilson. In increase to releasing albums and touring, Lynch has been known to perform at guitar clinics and instrument expos (especially NAMM), has developed his have key signature guitar series with Clairvoyance, and, as evidenced on an instalment of VH1's Where Ar They Now? program, has reverse an zealous body detergent builder.
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The characters - world Health Organization have been played by actors Joe Spatter and David Spinx since 2003 and 2004 respectively - were told by executive producer Diederick Santer on Fri that their contracts would not be renewed.
A friend of 26-year-old Bluster told The Sun: "He and David were told their characters had run out of steam by 'EastEnders' chief Diederick Santer. Joe was stunned at number one. He's loved playing Mickey and matte the fans still enjoyed watching his antics."
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