Should pharmacists touch patients during their day-to-day practice or not?

摘要

THE blanket statement that "a pharmacist is not competent to undertake a physical examination which includes the touching of a patient's body as part of a diagnostic procedure" (PJ, 28 January 2012, p122) has been a source of some exasperation for pharmacists recently. That it was voiced by one of the chairmen of the General Pharmaceutical Council's fitness-to-practise committee has plunged the profession into uncertainty.