Our famous chain pharmacies....

Just read a blog on "So much for Guardian", which is written by a blogger, named "just minishorts"，where this post was written 2 years ago. She wrote about her feeling after visiting Guardian (no offense), and how she was treated by the supervisor. For more information, you can just click THIS.

Hmmm....After reading this post, I would like to share my feeling and what i had encountered on this matter.

For your information, I am a pharmacy student (as some of you know and not for others) and was doing my final year thesis on community pharmacies last 2 months. I have to walk-in some of the pharmacies in Klang Valley and Malacca to hand-out some of the questionnaires to the pharmacists and persuade them to participate in the survey. For sure, I have to visit both independent and chain pharmacies.

* independent pharmacies= pharmacy that has less than 3 stores
chain pharmacies= pharmacy that has more than 4 stores, for example Guardian, Watson, Caring, Vitacare, etc

As mention in "Just minishorts"'s blog, I noticed and experienced that there are quite a lot of Guardian stores that have no pharmacists on duty although there is prescription counter in that. And this apply to some of the Watson's pharmacies too. However, I didn't encountered this situation in Caring pharmacies.

Another thing is, the schedule of their working hours are always 10am-6pm, normal office hours. And their off day are normally 2 days, the most busy days-Saturday and Sunday. There is a store I had encountered, the pharmacist off 5days instead of 2 days. I was feeling shock, this may be because the pharmacist taking his/her leave to rest or other reasons. But the problem is the headquarter office never send any pharmacists from other stores to replace this pharmacist and the schedule there display "off day". What will the customers felt? Thinking that pharmacists are not professional and yet, this only represent only a small bunch of pharmacists. However, this customers' perspective on pharmacists will definately apply to all pharmacists, no matter hospital, community or industrial pharmacists and this really will affect the pharmacy image our other pharmacists trying to maintained. So, how about ours? The newly, and going to graduate pharmacy students?

And many people will say, there is nothing wrong with it mah? Pharmacists are human also, they need rest. But what I want to say is, why this big chain pharmacies keep on open more and more new stores intead of hire more pharmacists? There are a lot of Guardian and Watson's do not have pharmacists on duty, but in public's eyes, there ARE pharmacies where pharmacists suppose on-duty there. Actually there is a signboard indicate whether the chain pharmacy is a store with or without pharmacy counter. But, how many of them will notice it? Because of the huge promotions organised by this chains, the public are confused with it and missunderstand all stores have pharmacy counter.

Anyway, I didn't encounter any Caring pharmacies without pharmacists on duty. They have 2 pharmacists instead, which working in a rountine basis. There will be a pharmacist on duty start from the stores open until it close. They usually work from 9.30am-9.30pm. Anyway, they only have to work 3-4days a week and the remaining day are replaced by other pharmacist. Why Caring can do it but not for other chains? After read the comment in that blog, there was an ex-Guardian pharmacist said:

We, pharmacists, always look for the opportunity to practice what we learned such as dispensing the right medicine with the right advices to the right person at the right dosing in order for us to achieve job satisfaction . Every pharmacist loves to provide such services but such chances r very very rare in guardian.

In guardian, pharmacists work like a clerk + dispenser (esp those store managers). The management gives us all sort of paper work to do untill it occupies most of our time and it overwhelms most pharmacists. Right, the quality of pharmaceutical care is not there. Furthermore, Guardian mgt focuses a damn lot on promotions and pharmacists hv to set up all these promotions themselves including finding empty space for 100plus). We r not happy with all these non-sense and thats why more of us r leaving this “supermarket” including those senior pharmacists. They just piss us off!!!

What would be in your mind when you first think of Guardian or Watson? Is it a pharmacy? Or it is a grocer? Or do you have any other answers?

From the words above, not only Guardian look like grocers, which sell anything range from confectionery, bath care, hair care, cosmetic, even baby pampers to of course medicines (in some chains with pharmacy counter), but this is the same for most of the chain pharmacies. This situation in less independent pharmacies, which may be because they are smaller and do not affort to compete with this chains as their modals are too small. And thus, sometimes you will think that only those independent pharmacy looked more like pharmacy, which selling medicines.

Finally, I hope there will be some changes in the management side of these chain pharmacies as from the comment wrote by "just minishort" 2 years ago, but I did not see any improvement in it. they should hire more pharmacists so that there will be a pharmacist on duty throughout the business hour by offer better salary ( i heard some rumors said that the salary for pharmacists are too low and thus, some of them resigned). Other than that, not only pharmacists, staffs should also be trained and undergo training often in order to maintain pharmacy professinal image. Don't spoil our profession because of one ya. Please, and please maintain our professional image....

We are professional, aren't we?

P/s:
What I said above do not mean to offense anyone. This is only my feeling after I read the post and after I had done my survey among the community pharmacies that I had encountered. Anyway, what I say may be not agree by some of you and you are feel free to comment on it.