Radio host pharmacy backlash

A SYDNEY radio host who complained on social media about having to wait for a pharmacy prescription has been roundly criticised, with her Facebook post now removed after a comprehensive online smack-down. Kristie Mercer from KiisFM

(pictured from an image in the pharmacy on her Instagram account) posted a video saying “I have to entertain myself because there’s a 15-minute wait on getting a script...what the f***? Like, I’m sorry, what is the hold up on the process?

“Like, what is happening? I can see the medicine behind you, it’s like two metres away. :ust grab it off the shelf and press print on the old sticker printer, slap it on and away we go,” she complained in the post which was viewed over 60,000 times before being taken down.

“My theory is that they want you to walk around and buy lots of extra things,” she alleged.

The post produced an immediate response from doctors and pharmacists, slamming Mercer’s ignorance of the processes required including checking names, Medicare details, medical history and drug interactions.

One pharmacist commenter said “it’s loud ignorant voices like this that unfortunately changes the perception of pharmacists and pharmacy as a profession.

“There is a reason why pharmacy is a recognised university degree...

“‘Slapping a sticker on it; completely undermines the roles and responsibilities we have as pharmacists to provide a duty of care to every single person that walks through our doors.

“We need to review dosages, interactions and contraindications etc, regardless if they are ũust ‘right behind us on the shelf’ or not,” the pharmacist wrote.