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Independent proprietor Sid Dajani finds flu vaccine suppliers' service very low down the scale, while he is propelled upwards to much greater fame and recognition

Flu season is under well under way and after the fiasco and chaos of obtaining vaccines last year and then finding they were too expensive, I've learned lessons that have come into play. My vaccines ordered in January arrived two weeks early and well before my publicity material from Abbott and Sanofi. However, I started planning in earnest by informing local surgeries, refreshing the SOP, training staff, getting the forms ready and putting up some old posters here and in surrounding shops. I was looking forward to receiving bag stickers, card reminders, vouchers, up-to- date PR, posters and in-store theatre POS.

When my box arrived from Abbott, I was ready and by then I knew what I wanted to complete my flu campaign. Incredibly and insultingly, the bag stickers, bags, posters and leaflets all promoted getting vaccinated at €your surgery€ or getting advice from the nurse. I ripped up all the posters that didn't mention pharmacy, which meant I had none to use, but kept the bag stickers because many patients €“ mainly those under 18 and aged 64 years or over €“ can't access our services and so we used them on their prescription bags.

I awaited the Sanofi material and found they and Abbott must be using the same advisory panel!

I then designed my own to use for those within our PGD inclusion criteria. Finally, I contacted Alliance Healthcare to ask when the patient questionnaire forms would be arriving. They told me that they would not be and we needed to design our own. Everything I used in the end was either what we had left over from the previous four years or laminates I'd designed myself.

The future option

I emailed all three major let-downs and received this back from one of them: €Well I'm afraid we don't have any pharmacist- specific support materials, however I will propose that next year we produce some. I'm sorry that I have been unable to help you today but if we can be of any help in the future please don't hesitate to contact us.€

Someone please hit me with something heavy because I don't understand how some companies can be shortsighted beyond words. It's one thing being thoughtless by not having any PR material, but it's crazy when your service training provider has lost the support tools that they used to use, and it's complete madness that, while the uptake of pharmacy flu services increases, our support gets less and less. But where on the Richter scale of daftness does sending out literature promoting GP-based vaccination services to pharmacies providing the same service sit?

Clearly, these companies are blind to reality, deaf to the pharmacy front-line, fly in the face of commonsense, and owe their logic more to wind-spittle than evidence base or science. Their place in the Raspberry Award nominations is assured!

Top pharmacist

What is equally breathtaking is being nominated by a patient as a top UK pharmacist in the first ever nationally run competition by Woman's Weekly. Once I had been informed, I really didn't have much time to think about it until I got another phone call to say I was shortlisted to be in the top five and they wanted a quote and a picture with the patient.

Reading about the other four finalists a few weeks later highlighted how ordinary pharmacists are doing extraordinary work and I know we are all doing more than what's expected of us. We are all drenched in work everyday and under a lot of pressure, yet we consistently deliver and are never acknowledged. So it's an amazing feeling to be one of the five passionate and compassionate pharmacists in making history and taking the opportunity to shine a light on the work and services we are all doing.

Already I've had new patients using my pharmacy citing the article, including the mother of a two year-old with congenital myasthenia, and I've had strangers call me from as far away as Scotland to say they were enthused by what I said. I can only imagine other finalists are also experiencing the buzz of something big. The overall winner will be decided by the readers and the public but, frankly, we're all winners and so is the profession.

Number two problem

I was responding to a reporter for our local paper who was asking me how it felt like to be a local celebrity when I was alerted to speak to a patient. I finished the call quickly and went to the front desk. €Hello, how are you? Not very well. Sorry to hear that €“ would you like to join me in the consultation room and tell me what's wrong? No it's OK €“ I haven't had a decent shit since August!€ In one fell swoop, bang! Pharmacy reality hit again.

I endured a further dose of reality on another day recently when I came out of the consultation room and found a lady sitting in one of our chairs waiting for her prescription and cutting her finger nails. Others politely ignored this vulgar woman and, whilst I have seen this disgusting practice on trains and airport lounges, this was a new experience for my pharmacy.

Despite being the third one to check, I checked her items first just so she could go. I checked her postcode, did the usual and thanked her before checking the items for the rest of the 'waiters'. I couldn't believe my eyes when she went back to the chair and started cutting her toenails! At that point I went and asked her if she could continue the practice elsewhere as chairs were needed for other patients waiting. I also told her our local Boots has more chairs that were usually surplus to requirements and far more comfy.