Wholesaling in hospital

摘要

I was disturbed by the advertisement on p511 of last week's PJ (28 April 2012), encouraging hospital pharmacists to wholesale medicines for profit. Although this may not be illegal, it flies in the face of a letter issued by Keith Ridge, chief pharmaceutical officer for England, which strongly advised chief pharmacists in hospitals not to engage in such activity. In addition, the attempt in the advertisement to link savings on medicines to improving cancer survival rates is to be deprecated. The supply chain for medicines in the UK is already in a delicate position and shortages are a major issue within secondary care and any action such as that recommended in the