Pharmacists should support switching

摘要

Pharmacy as a profession must become more involved in determining what medicines,and for what indications,are switched from prescription-only medicines to pharmacy medicines,said Terry Maguire,vice-chairman of PharmacyHealthLink."It's not good enough to leave this to the pharmaceutical industry and simply comment when an application for reclassification of medicines letter is produced by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency or get irritated when a medicine goes general sale list," he said.Dr Maguire explained that the Government is committed to promoting self-care and that pharmacy must align itself with this agenda."Some pharmacists might argue that too many P medicines have gone to GSL and the more cynical might suggest that pharmacy-only status is merely a stopping-off point on a product's journey to GSL.Sadly these views smack of self-interest and hold little sway with a Government fighting hard to continue to fund its health service."