AN OVER-THE-COUNTER formulary could be defined as a continually updated, evidence-based listing of safe, effective drugs available without a prescription that includes a large enough range of medicines and sufficient information about them to enable pharmacists to prescribe treatment that is medically appropriate. As superintendent pharmacist of Manor Pharmacy Group, one of my roles is to supervise our annual intake of preregistration trainee pharmacists; this year we had five. A frequent criticism of recent pharmacy graduates is that they lack knowledge of, and even interest in, OTC medicines. In my view this is nonsense: we should be producing pharmacists who are confident communicators with patients and the public as well as confident prescribers, whatever the medicine's legal classification.
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