Providing high quality and consistent advice on medicines in response to presented symptoms of minor illnesses has long been a key role of the community pharmacy. There is no doubt that pharmacies are trusted by the general public to provide this service and your personal experience will tell you that this is highly valued. How can you maintain the quality of the advice you give?

In the past decade the consumer rights organisation Which? has carried out covert research that brought into sharp focus some inconsistencies and shortcomings in the performance of community pharmacy. Naturally, this prompted much soul searching and suggestions for improvements that could be implemented to prevent this happening again. Best practice is something that must always be at the forefront of a pharmacy team’s mind.

In a report from Which? it was suggested that unsuitable and potentially dangerous advice was being given to customers in some pharmacies. A mystery shopping investigation revealed that unsatisfactory advice given in one third of 101 pharmacy visits.