Concern over medical sales at pharmacies
Consumer watchdog 'which' has conducted research looking at the quality of medical sales activity at pharmacies in the UK.
They looked at medical sales activities in 101 pharmacies in the UK. In particular independant pharmacies rated very poorly in giving advice. They posed as patients asking about a range of issue from contraception to migraine and travellers diarrhoea. For migraine treatment, only recently available over the counter, in 40% of cases the assistant failed to notify the pharmacist.
Investigators found they were 4 times more likely to receive unsatisfactory advice from a sales assistant than from a pharmacist. This at a time where assistants are to be given more responsibility in place of a pharmacist.
The poor advice in some cases was simply offering the wrong products right through to missing serious infections which needed further treatment.
The Royal pharmaceutical society has pledged to investigate and put measures in place to deal with this.
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Concern over medical sales at pharmacies
