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Silver surfing with ICP

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Silver surfing with ICP

As the Independent Community Pharmacist magazine celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, it is worth considering how pharmacy practice has changed since 1990.

Dispensing was still a respectable, and profitable, occupation 25 years ago. There was time to decipher handwriting, count tablets by hand and mix up the occasional extemporaneous preparation. Adequate stockholding was supported by generous on-cost payments and manufacturers could supply virtually everything they made.

Over the counter medicines were largely the preserve of community pharmacy, and backed up by Resale Price Maintenance. Services such as oxygen supply were provided professionally with a personal touch. Deliveries to the housebound and lengthy conversations at the chemist counter were undertaken with the genuine goodwill engendered by business security.

But remove those rose-tinted spectacles for a moment and take another look. Leapfrogging of dispensing contracts was a threat to longstanding businesses. Boots’ newfangled monitored dosage systems were seen as a cynical attempt at stealing business. And Allen Lloyd was building his empire with a cost-cutting philosophy that was dangerously close to the bone.

American professors Hepler and Strand published their seminal paper on pharmaceutical care in 1990, suggesting perhaps for the first time that dispensing alone might not justify community pharmacy’s existence. They suggested that pharmacists should redirect their energy to the greater social good by reducing drug-related morbidity and mortality. Heard that message anywhere a little more recently?

Despite great change, many things remain the same. Independent pharmacists were as much at the cutting edge of practice and innovation in 1990 as they are today. Their entrepreneurial skills, customer focus and flexibility has always kept them one step ahead of the multiples. Independents will be the first to make regular use of the Summary Care Record in England. And working together for the first time in federated groups, independent contractors can now compete with the multiples when bidding for services.

Thank you to all our readers for supporting this magazine through 25 years of change and challenge. We hope to share many more years with you at the heart of one of the most exciting, and rewarding sectors in UK business and healthcare. Follow the Independent Community Pharmacist @ICP_SteveBremer

Steve Bremer, Editor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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